Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambican President Daniel Chapo has challenged the Interior Ministry to create efficient mechanisms aimed at fighting organized crime, especially the wave of kidnappings that has plagued the country’s cities since 2011.
According to the President, who was speaking on Thursday in Maputo, at the opening of a meeting of the Ministry’s Coordinating Council, security is crucial for social stability and public trust.
“We must continue working in the streets, at checkpoints, and at the borders, guaranteeing public order and security, as well as in the trenches fighting terrorism in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. We appreciate the work carried out by these brave Mozambicans on the ground, fighting terrorism and, at the same time, guaranteeing the security and public order of our people,” he said.
He stressed that public order and tranquillity, as part of national security, are indispensable for carrying out all activities aimed at guaranteeing the welfare of the people.
Chapo urged his audience “to reflect and find feasible solutions that address the concerns of the people in a sustainable, permanent and lasting way, especially the prevention and combating of crime and of traffic accidents that are sowing mourning and pain in Mozambican families and tearing apart the social fabric and economy of the country,” he said.
Regarding civil identification and immigration, he said that the government is working in order to bring these services closer to communities through mobile brigades for issuing identity cards and passports in the country and in the diaspora. “The government plans to exceed the goal of ensuring that by the end of this five-year period, 64.21 percent of Mozambicans will hold an identity card.”
This is a peculiarly exact percentage, and it is unclear why such a target has been chosen. Chapo also did not explain why, after 50 years of independence vast numbers of Mozambicans still do not have identity cards, even though these documents are, in theory, compulsory.
Every five years, at great expense, the entire Mozambican adult population is issued with voter cards, which are used just once in their lives (twice if they happen to live in municipalities) and are then thrown away.
These exercises could be used to issue everyone with an identity card. Yet there has been resistance to this simple reform, and political parties adamantly reject the idea that voter cards could be used for identity purposes.
Chapo also called on the National Immigration Service (SENAMI) to be more committed to combating illegal immigration in the country while at the same time insisting that the Mozambican state should be “the face of hospitality for all those who seek Mozambique for its riches and beauty.”
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