Good afternoon. Mozambique is preparing to revise its Road Code, with plans for a points-based driving licence, CCTV-backed enforcement and updated rules for new types of vehicles. These are sensible reforms, and long overdue. Yet events in Tete this week show how limited legal reform will be if the state cannot enforce basic safety rules consistently, cleanly and without violence.
At least two people were killed during protests by moto-taxi operators after a municipal inspection operation. The immediate dispute appears to have involved requirements such as registration, helmets and reflective vests. Those demands are reasonable. Moto-taxi drivers and their passengers are exposed to serious risk every day, and the state has a duty to make that work safer.
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The difficulty is that Mozambique often allows informal transport systems to grow for years before trying to impose order. Moto-taxis become livelihoods. Chapas keep cities moving. Small boats connect communities. Roadside markets serve travellers. These are not marginal activities; they are part of the country’s daily economy. When regulation finally arrives, it adds costs to businesses and passengers who already operate on narrow margins.
That does not mean safety rules should be abandoned. It means they have to be introduced earlier, applied predictably and enforced without corruption. A points-based licence system will have limited effect if many drivers do not have licences. Higher fines will not change behaviour if fines can be made to disappear. CCTV may help, but only if people believe the law is being applied fairly rather than selectively.
