Welcome to Zitamar’s daily Mozambique briefing for 10 August, 2018.

Agenda

• Today: President Nyusi opens a conference in Pemba on local business opportunities from the gas mega-projects
• Today: Bilateral meeting between the  interior ministers of South Africa and Mozambique, in Maputo

The best of the rest:

• Five more companies to list on Mozambique stock exchange

• Frelimo and Renamo unveil male-dominated mayoral candidate lists

• SA navy completes patrols in Mozambique Channel

• Gabinfo head claims media charges will ‘make the industry sustainable’

Five more companies to list on Mozambique stock exchange (Notícias, O País)

Five more companies will list on Mozambique’s stock exchange, the Bolsa de Valores de Moçambique (BVM), according to the head of private business association CTA. They are travel agency COTUR, mineral water company Água Vumba, VBM, Mozambique Power, and Sociedade Moçambicana de Medicamentos. CTA head Agostinho Vuma said 20 more companies are preparing to list, although it’s not clear if these five companies are actually included in that figure.

Under chairman Salim Valá, the BVM is rushing to increase its roster of listed companies – but might be being too hasty. Having bent its rules to list slaughterhouse company Matama, only to later suspend its shares, the BVM needs to be sure it is following proper procedures. The shambles this week where it erroneously said that a successful government bond auction had failed suggests there is still a lack of competency at the bourse.

Frelimo and Renamo unveil male-dominated mayoral candidate lists (MediaFax)

Mozambique’s ruling party Frelimo officially submitted its candidate list for this October’s municipal elections yesterday. Main opposition party Renamo will do so today, having unveiled it to journalists yesterday. For 53 municipalities, Renamo does not have a single woman running to be mayor; Frelimo appears to have eight.

Zitamar News is preparing a detailed preview of the key municipalities to watch in the coming elections, to be published next week.

RSA navy completes patrols in Mozambique Channel (AIM)

Two South African navy vessels have completed a deployment in the northern Mozambican Channel as part of Operation Copper, a programme which began in January 2011 to support Mozambique’s anti-piracy efforts. Since then the mandate has extended to include actions to target drug, arms, and human trafficking, as well as illegal fishing. The two South African vessels left Durban on 16 July and sailed to Pemba from where they conducted patrols with members of the Mozambican navy onboard. They made no arrests but the operation “sends a warning to any criminal element that the SA Navy is ready to protect its territorial waters, as well as those of its neighbours,” according to a statement from the South African navy. In April this year, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa approved the extension of Operation Copper for another year, which SA will fund to the tune of ZAR 127 million ($9.2m).

Operation Copper, originally meant to counter a piracy threat, is now largely a training programme for the South African navy. No South African patrols ran in the Mozambique Channel between January and July of this year, and the ones that have run do not seem to be making much of an impact on the narcotics or illegal fishing trades. A task South African ships may be of useful for, but have apparently not been assigned yet, would be patrolling the Cabo Delgado coast to interdict insurgents who, according to the government, sometimes move to attack sites by boat.

Gabinfo head claims media charges will ‘make the industry sustainable’ (Savana)

The head of the Gabinete de Informação, which is planning to slap enormous charges on independent media operating in Mozambique (almost $27,000 per year in the case of Zitamar News), has told Savana that the fees were set following a study into the sector that showed that the media could support the fees. Emilia Moiane denied that the move is aimed at reducing the freedom of the press, saying that they will instead guarantee that the media sector is “a sustainable industry.”

Moaine’s claim to have agreed the fees with the other main state media body, the Conselho Superior de Comunicação Social (CSCS), was contradicted by CSCS head and veteran journalist Tomas Vieira Mario, who told Savana his institution was taken by surprise by the fees. The lack of consultation, he said, was worrying.

Had Moiane had any dialogue with the sector that she regulates, she would have quickly heard that the proposed new fees will force independent media out of business and force foreign journalists to stay away. Either that was the intention, or Mozambique is simply making up policy on the hoof again – a clear sign to investors that Mozambique is not a place to do business.

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