Cleaning up Sernic

Good afternoon. Attorney-general Américo Letela’s comments about the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic; see below) are a sign of the winds of change blowing through the investigative force. Letela may or may not be the first attorney-general to publicly admit that some Sernic officers are involved in organised crime (no surprise there), but he is the first one to be in a position to do anything about it, now that responsibility for Sernic has been transferred from the Ministry of the Interior to the Attorney-General’s Office.

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The Constitutional Council, Mozambique’s highest court on constitutional matters, has dismissed an appeal from opposition politician Venâncio Mondlane demanding clarification over the process of registering his new political party, to be called Anamalala. Mondlane appealed to the council complaining that the Ministry of Justice, Constitutional, and Religious Affairs had failed to make a decision on approving the party by the required deadline, despite the fact that Mondlane’s supporters had met ministry officials to discuss queries about the application. However, it ruled that the ministry was still within the deadline to issue a decision. The justice ministry had demanded Mondlane’s party amend its constitution due to irregularities, including the name “Anamalala,” which it ruled was divisive. The ruling is attached.

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As we noted recently, under previous arrangements, Sernic was under the effective control of the police command, which exposed Sernic to the influence and interference of corrupt and malicious police officers. The Attorney-General’s Office has its faults, but it has a different culture to the security forces and it will be less tolerant of corruption and wrongdoing. Sernic’s change of management is bad news for gangs engaged in drug trafficking, kidnapping and other popular forms of organised crime in Mozambique.