Axed Mozambique’s Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario
MAPUTO, March 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Carlos Agostinho do Rosario was dismissed as Mozambique Prime Minister and Adriano Maleiane was promoted from Minister of Economy and Finance to Prime Minister in a cabinet reshuffle.
Both had been in the posts since being named to President Filipe’s Nyusi’s first government, on Jan 17, 2015.
This triggered two other promotions. Maleiane’s ministry is taken by Max Tonela (formerly Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy and before that 2015-17 Minister of Industry and Trade). He, in turn, is replaced by Carlos Zacarias (formerly chair of the National Petroleum Institute). Both are respected technocrats.
Joao Machatine was dismissed as Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources. He is replaced by Carlos Mesquita (formerly Minister of Industry and Trade, and in Nyusi’s first 2015-19 government Minister of Transport and Communications. Before that he was head of Cornelder de Mocambique, the company that runs the port of Beira).
Mesquita in turn is replaced at Industry and Trade by Silvino Moreno (formerly chair of Ecobank-Mozambique)
Max Tonela was head of Mozambique’s petroleum and gas industry. He was appointed Minister of Mineral Resources in 2017, and had been Minister of Industry and Trade between 2015 and 2017. He was director of economy and finance in the publicly owned electricity company, EDM, between 1997 and 2007, and from 2007 to 2015 he was a member of the board of Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa, the company that operates the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi River.
Augusta Maita was dismissed as Minister of the Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries. She had only been appointed in 2020, having previously been head of the National Disaster Management Institute (INGC). She is replaced by a promoted Lidia Cardoso (formerly Deputy Minister of Health).
Carlos Siliya is dismissed as Minister of Veterans’ Affairs, with no replacement. The veteran of the national liberation struggle had only been named in 2020.
At 72 years old Adriano Maleiane is the oldest member of the government. He was a highly respected governor of the Bank of Mozambique (Banco de Moçambique, BdM) in the critical period 1991 to 2006. He then moved into the private sector from which he was planning his retirement when Nyusi pulled him back into government.in 2015. He was reluctant and is said to have wanted to quit when he found that the treasury was empty because of the secret debt scandal.
He has a history of trying to clean up other people’s corruption and messes – not always successfully. As Finance Minister he had to deal with the secret debt crisis. — NNN-AGENCIES
