Good afternoon. Mozambican social media is abuzz with discussions about the appointment of former government minister José Pacheco as director-general of the intelligence agency SISE (see below). Many of the comments are unfavourable, arguing that Pacheco was an unimpressive minister and that President Daniel Chapo is largely resurrecting old figures from the past to work for him. The implication is that, if they did not manage to fix Mozambique’s problems before, they will not be able to now.
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This is rather unfair, however. Pacheco served as a minister mostly under then-president Armando Guebuza. In these roles he was closely instructed by, and followed the orders of Guebuza: if he did not do more, it is because the president prevented him. In fact, as interior minister Pacheco sought to crack down on the drugs trade, hiring outside expertise to carry out communications surveillance on drugs gangs and looking to arrest senior people in the gangs. But he was told to stop, presumably because he was getting too close to those people in the ruling Frelimo party with a stake in the drugs trade. The same reason may or may not explain why smuggling of illegally cut timber reached a peak during his time as agriculture minister.
