Good afternoon. Mozambique has spent almost three decades expanding municipal government without settling who will pay for it. A study presented last week by the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP) found that Beira's visible record of investment between 2022 and 2024 rested heavily on money from the Netherlands, the World Bank, Germany and the European Union. The city's own revenue largely covered its running costs, but not its main capital projects.
Donor-funded drains, coastal protection and sanitation are welcome. They do not amount to financial autonomy. The National Association of Municipalities of Mozambique (ANAMM) says central government has disbursed only about half the transfers due to municipalities each year since 2024, and that some councils have received just 8% of this year's allocation. A mayor cannot plan services, pay suppliers or make credible investment commitments when statutory transfers arrive late or not at all. The squeeze is not felt evenly. Councils run by the opposition have long complained, with some grounds, that late or missing transfers fall hardest on them, a charge the government denies. And the outside money is unreliable in its own way: donors are trimming aid and steering what remains towards trade and business, not roads and drains.
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The first responsibility lies with central government. If it assigns councils duties, it must make transfers predictable and sufficient, while keeping an equalisation mechanism for poorer municipalities that cannot raise what Maputo, Matola or Beira can. The municipal tax code dates from 2008 and needs revising. Waiting for a development partner to repair every road and build every drain is no fiscal model.
Municipal leaders cannot lay all the blame on Maputo. Too many councils have weak tax administration, heavy wage bills and debts that pass from one mandate to the next. In February, a court in Cabo Delgado ordered Pemba's bank accounts blocked over a disputed debt of about MZN65m (about $1m) run up under the previous administration, and the case has already reached the town hall's ability to pay salaries. Nor does competence always decide who runs a city. Parties reward loyalty with the top of the municipal list, and some mayors take office with little of the technical skill the job demands. Municipal office is too often treated as a political prize and a source of jobs, not as an administration that delivers services within a budget.
