Good afternoon. We learned last week that the Administrative Tribunal has ruled that the Bank of Mozambique acted unlawfully when it used its pension fund, Kuhanha, to take over Moza Banco in 2016. The court actually made the ruling in December, but it has only just emerged.
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From the Zitamar Live Blog:
For the many critics of Rogério Zandamela, the court’s ruling sums up his most classic trait. Zandamela has earned the nickname of “sheriff” because of his tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. And that is what he appears to have done in this case. The court found that the takeover of Moza Banco began in September, but that the central bank only announced that it was intervening in Moza Banco in a notice published in the official gazette in November. This was too late and rendered the notice invalid, the tribunal said. It also criticised Zandamela for his decision to imperiously summon the Moza Banco board and then tell them verbally they were all dismissed, without a letter.
The Moza Banco takeover was already criticised by the ethics watchdog back in 2017 because of Zandamela’s conflict of interest. He used his regulatory position as governor of the central bank to make a decision which benefited Kuhanha, the bank’s pension fund, whose board he also chaired.
