Labour Delegate in Johannesburg Sacked

Mozambique's Labour Minister, Helena Taipo, has sacked her ministry's delegate in South Africa, Elias Nhambe.

According to a Labour Ministry press release, Taipo also dismissed the Johannesburg delegation's Administration and Finance Officer, Artur Bila, and its Human Resources Officer, Paulo Macie.

The sackings follow a visit by Taipo to South Africa in April. She was angered when she found that no representatives of Mozambican mineworkers had been invited to the inauguration of the delegation's new offices.

She publicly rebuked Nhambe and his staff for this extraordinary oversight. "Why didn't you invite the miners to this ceremony?", asked Taipo. "Who is going to inform the miners that we have new delegation offices? How can you inaugurate a building called "Miners' House", when there is not a single mineworker present at the inauguration?"

She pointed out that the only reason the Labour Ministry has a delegation in Johannesburg is precisely because there are thousands of Mozambicans working on the South African gold mines.

She urged the delegation staff to "stop getting fat, and go and work on the ground. We shall work on the ground, because our work, our offices are where the miners are".

Even more serious are allegations of corruption involving staff in both the Johannesburg delegation, and the Ministry headquarters in Maputo.

Earlier this month, Taipo sacked the director of migrant labour in the Ministry, Boaventura Manhique, and froze several bank accounts used by his directorate. It was suspected that these accounts were used to cream off money from the deferred wages of Mozambican miners.

Under the current system, the miners only receive 40 per cent of their wages in South Africa, and the other 60 per cent is transferred to Mozambique where they pick it up, in local currency, on their return.

The deferred wages amount to large sums of money, which should earn interest. It is suspected that the corrupt official devised schemes whereby they pocketed the interest, rather than passing it on to the miners.

Just hours after Taipo had sacked Manhique, unknown thieves broke into the Johannesburg delegation and stole three computers and two safes. According to Nhambe, it was not money, but "important documents" that were stolen.

The theft looked like an inside job, because the thieves knew exactly what they wanted and they were able to override the security systems.

The disappearance of key documents may make it difficult to conclude the audit of the Johannesburg delegation that Taipo had ordered.

She has replaced Nhambe with Custodio Cuna, who used to be Labour Ministry sub-delegate based in the eastern South African city of Nelspruit. Arrone Uamba, a senior official in the National Social Security Institute (INSS), takes over the administration and finance department at the delegation, while Ernesto Guibunda, an official from the migrant labour directorate will run the human resources department.

Issues to do with the miners' deferred wages, however, will be handled by Adelino Muchanga, formerly chief labour inspector in the southern province of Inhambane.

Source: Allafrica - 2010.05.27