Mozambique ex-president Armando Guebuza evades secret $2bn debt query
Thursday February 17 2022
Former Mozambique president Armando Guebuza. One of his sons was arrested on February 16, 2019 in crackdown on suspects linked to a government debt scandal. PHOTO | AFP
Former Mozambique President Armando Guebuza has dodged questions regarding debts incurred during his term in office, effectively placing the blame at the door of his successor.
In a testimony on Thursday, he told a court that he did not participate in debts because the Operational Command, led then Filipe Nyusi, was the entity delegated to deal with the matter. Mr Nyusi would later succeed him in power.
Mr Guebuza, 79, testified over the ‘hidden debt’ scandal from loans to three state-owned companies, issued between 2013 and 2014, that was to finance a fishing project. However, the loans were kept secret from Mozambique’s parliament and other public legal reports, and the funds largely went to paying kickbacks.
“I worked with the Operational Command, and they brought the proposals. And that work was done on the basis of trust,” he said as he became the first Mozambican head of state to appear in court to testify since independence.
“I made an order in which I delegated the power of negotiation to the Ministers of Defence and Interior and the General Director of the State Secret Intelligence Services (SISE),” he added in the court.
The firms -- Indicus, Ematum and Mam -- took out €1.76 billion ($2 billion) in loans, including from Credit Suisse and Russian lender VTB, to finance maritime surveillance, fishing and shipyard projects.
The loans were secretly endorsed by the government of the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), led then by former President Guebuza, without the knowledge of parliament and the Administrative Court.
Justice Efigénio Baptista has declined the Mozambique Bar Association’s request to summon President Filipe Nyusi, who was minister of Defence at the time, to testify.
US officials investigating the scandal have also accused President Nyusi of receiving kickbacks.
Read: President Nyusi sued in UK over $2bn debt scandal
Guebuza, who ruled Mozambique between 2005 and 2015, testified before the closing arguments.
His testimony began about two hours late after unknown people fired at the electricity power station of the maximum security jail in Maputo in an attempt to sabotage the hearing, according to government officials.
The perpetrators fled in two vehicles after the prison guards responded by firing back.