PREVIEW
The president’s swift reversal of Waldemar de Sousa’s appointment shows the legacy of Frelimo’s financing scandals and suggests that the IMF is watching closely
The U-turn by President Daniel Chapo in dismissing central bank governor Waldemar de Sousa a day after appointing him, follows the disclosure of details of an investigation into Sousa’s involvement in the hidden-debt case.
Instead, economist Felisberto Dinis Navalha was sworn in as Governor on 3 September, with Benedita Maria Guimino appointed as Deputy Governor and De Sousa dropped entirely. Navalha replaces Rogério Zandamela, who led the central bank for 10 years.
De Sousa had been accused by the Attorney General’s Office of links to Mozambique’s US$2 billion ‘hidden debt’ scandal. De Sousa, one of the Bank’s administrators during the scandal, was accused of irregularly contracting debts alongside former governor Ernesto Gove and Joana Matsombe, another administrator. But De Sousa but was not tried in the main case, in which 19 defendants were convicted (AC Vol 58 No 18, Stalemate and stand-off).
The hurried ditching of De Sousa may reflect the Chapo government’s attempts to agree another loan programme with the IMF in the coming months (AC Vol 67 No 9, As TotalEnergies restarts gas project, the insurgents take up piracy). Navalha, who has spent 28 years in the central bank, says that his first priority is to address the foreign exchange shortage faced by the commercial banks.
Mozambique’s foreign currency reserves slumped to $3.464bn in June, according to central bank data. Local businesses say they are struggling to obtain foreign exchange.
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