The Construction and Town Planning Directorate (DCU) of Maputo City Council has slapped an embargo on the building of a shopping centre by the MBS group in the central part of the city, alleging a number of irregularities in the MBS documentation, reports Tuesday's issue of the daily paper "Noticias".
MBS is owned by Mohamed Bachir Sulemane (hence the name), believed to be one of the richest men in Mozambique, who makes no secret of his financial support for the ruling Frelimo Party. Bachir's company is one of the major players in Mozambican retail trade, with interests ranging from jewellery to textiles to household tools. This is the first time that MBS's expansion has run into objections from municipal authorities, A spokesperson for MBS, cited by "Noticias", described the embargo as an attitude of arrogance that works against the government's declared goal of encouraging private investment.
The spokesperson for the City Council, Cristina Manguele, confirmed the embargo, but said it does not concern the entire project, but only work on one plot, number 284/4.
However, "Noticias" has acquired documents (presumably from MBS) showing that the initial embargo, issued on 16 June, did indeed cover the entire project. It demanded that MBS produce, within 24 hours, the license for the work and the documents for the concession of the two plots where the project is being built.
But a second document, signed by DCU director Antonio Simao Junior, embargoed only the works on plot 284/4, saying that the municipality never issued a license for that plot.
Not true, claims "Noticias". For the paper claims to have a document showing that the municipality issued a concession to MBS for plot 284/4 on 27 October 2003.
A letter from the DCU to MBS, dated 26 July, says that the embargo decision was taken because it was found that all the designs for the project were written in English, whereas the law stipulates that they must be in the country's official language, Portuguese. The plans also contained irregularities, because two of the building's pillars are placed outside the limits of the plot.
In an earlier letter, dated 20 July, the DCU fined MBS 80 million meticais (about 3,500 US dollars), to be paid within the next 30 days, for contravening the General Regulation for Urban Buildings.
The MBS spokesman told the paper "There are 120 foreigners, of 11 nationalities, and about 250 Mozambicans working there, and any paralysis of the project at this stage, even for a single day, will upset the building timetable, preventing completion of the job before the December general elections as planned".
The same source added that "even if one admits that there are irregularities, the decision to embargo the project is beyond comprehension, because no mechanisms for dialogue were even started, to discuss those errors and find the necessary corrections".
"What happened was a decision taken as if people cannot talk and understand each other. Furthermore, there is an engineer from the City Council, who has been following the work from the start, but who never spoke of any irregularities that justify such an arrogant decision", the MBS source said.
The shopping centre is planned to cover three hectares, with a supermarket, 120 other shops, 90 offices, 20 restaurants, two cinemas, banks and conference facilities
Fonte: AIM
