Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambican President Daniel Chapo on Monday appointed journalist Ericino de Salema as Director of the President’s Office of Institutional Communication.
The appointment is remarkable because Salema was kidnapped and tortured during the rule of Chapo’s predecessor, Filipe Nyusi. Salema had just left the headquarters of the National Union of Journalists (SNJ) in Maputo, on 27 March 2018, when two unidentified men grabbed him, thrust him into their car and drove off.
He was found unconscious and bearing the marks of torture a few hours later in Marracuene, a few kilometres north of the capital. He was immediately rushed to a Maputo hospital with serious injuries including multiple fractures.
Salema was a regular commentator on the independent television station, STV. He often criticised the Nyusi government, and had received death threats. Thus, during an appearance on STV’s “Pontos de Vista” programme on 25 March, he had criticised the government’s debt restructuring and called for the finance minister’s resignation.
Ericino de Salema will be discharged from hospital within a month
The police claimed they were investigating the attack against Salema, but nobody has ever been arrested for the crime.
The then chairperson of the constitutionally enshrined press freedom watchdog, the Higher Mass Media Council (CSCS), Tomas Vieira Mario, said what was particularly worrying about the attack was that “the perpetrators acted in broad daylight, and on the public highway which shows they believed they enjoyed impunity”.
This was the second attack against an STV contributor in less than two years. In 2016, academic Jose Jaime Macuiane was abducted and shot. Although seriously injured, he survived. The police, of course, pledged to hunt down the attackers, but almost a decade later, nobody has been arrested.
Chapo also appointed the former governor of Nampula province, Manuel Rodrigues, as Secretary of State for the central province of Sofala, replacing Cecilia Chamutota. Rodrigues was one of the few officials who challenged the ruling Frelimo Party. Frelimo had wanted Rodrigues to run for the post of Nampula provincial governor, in last year’s provincial elections but he refused.
Chapo reappointed Luisa Meque and Gabriel Monteiro as Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the country’s relief agency, the Disaster Risk Management Institute (INGD).
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