New governors

Only one governor kept his post when President Joaquim Chissano announced his new list on 14 July. The popular José Pacheco remains in Cabo Delgado. Four governors move: Aires Aly (Niassa to Inhambane), Felício Zacarias (Manica to Sofala), Rosário Mualeia (Nampula to Gaza) and Soares Nhaca (Maputo to Manica).

Five governors are new: Abdul Razak Noormahomed (Nampula, formerly vice minister of health), Tomas Mandlate (Tete, formerly education ministry senior official), David Simango (Niassa, was Maputo city education director), Lucas Jeremias (Zambézia, was health ministry senior official) and Alfredo Namitete (Maputo, was head of SATCC, Southern African Transport and Communications Commission - part of SADC).

None are natives of the province of which they are governor. No women were appointed governors.

 
New law planned for districts

Districts and localities are to be governed by new and clearer legislation; a draft of a law (anteprojecto) was revised and agreed by the Council of Ministers in June.

Mozambique is following two parallel and sometimes conflicting paths on local government. In 1998, 33 municipalities were created -- the 23 cities and one town (vila) in each province. They were given substantial autonomy and elected presidents and assemblies.

However, at local level the rest of the country is governed by a centralised and hierarchic system of province, district, administrative post and locality in which all officials are appointed centrally and are directly accountable to the next level up. The new legislation will lead to some increased autonomy at local level.

Other towns will eventually be made municipalities and be granted similar self-government in future years, but until then they remain part of districts.

Mozambican officials talk of the new municipalities as part of a "democratic decentralisation" which involves a real shift of power. By contrast, the governments of districts, administrative posts and localities are defined as "local state organs" (to emphasise that they remain part of the central state) and the process affecting them is called "administrative deconcentration".

The civil service's almost military command structure is continued in the new draft law. The district administrator is appointed by the Minister of State Administration and is "senior director" ("dirigente superior") of the territory. The administrator "represents the state and directs the execution of the government programme, the economic and social plan, and state budget in the district." The administrator is expected to carry out instructions from the provincial government and "is personally accountable" to the provincial governor for all administrative actions in the district.

Below the district administrator are chiefs of administrative posts (named by the Minister of State Administration but reporting to the district administrator) and below them chiefs of localities (named by the governor but reporting to the chief of the administrative post).

But the draft law proposes substantially more autonomy. Districts (but not posts and localities) will have their own budgets and, as now, be expected to raise some of their own revenue through charges for services and fees for licences such as for market trading. The new law will explicitly give districts many of the same responsibilities as municipalities, such as for local streets, markets, cemeteries, rubbish collection, water and sanitation, public parks and sports grounds, etc. But district governments are also expected to carry out central government plans and provincial instructions, whereas elected municipal governments cannot be directed in the same way.

As at present there will be district directors subject to dual authority, to the district administrator and to their ministry. But the number may now be reduced, with directors covering several different areas and being accountable to several ministries.

The "district government" will be composed of the administrator, the directors, and the chiefs of administrative posts. A new "district council" will be composed of the district government plus the president of any municipal council in the district, plus "community authorities" and representatives of economic, social and cultural organisations in the district. The district council will be a "consultative organ" convened by the district government, and will meet every three months.

At administrative post and locality level there will be no directors and no formally defined "government" as such, but there will be a consultative council with community leaders and representatives of organisations. These will meet more frequently, every two months at post level and monthly at locality level.

 
New decree recognises 'traditional chiefs'

"Community authorities" ("autoridades comunitárias") and their links to local state organs are the subject of a short decree (15/2000) approved by the Council of Ministers on 20 June.

The decree defines "community authorities" as "traditional chiefs and other leaders recognised as such by their respective local communities". Local state bodies are expected to articulate with community authorities and to "ask their opinions on how best to mobilise and organise the participation of local communities in the realisation of plans and programmes for economic, social and cultural development."

The decree goes on to say that "the objective of this collaboration between local state bodies and community leaders is the mobilisation and organisation of the population for their participation in implementation of local development tasks."

Collaboration with community authorities is to be in a wide range of areas, including "land use; employment; food security; housing; public heath; education and culture; peace, justice and social harmony; civic education; environment; and transport and communication".

The new decree does not relate to elected local government, but will surely be seen as a model for cooperation there as well.

The new decree is very brief, and a technical committee in the Ministry of State Administration is now writing the regulations which will give more details.

The definition of "community authorities" as "traditional chiefs and other leaders" is clearly intended to allow the inclusion of those neighbourhood secretaries and other leaders introduced by Frelimo in the late 1970s and early 1980s and who have gained local credibility, as well as religious leaders, senior teachers and nurses, and even traditional healers.

Speaking to the daily Notícias (10 July) the Minister of State Administration José Chichava said that district and locality administrators should not wait for the regulations and the new law on local state organs, but should immediately set up "community councils" which would include these "community authorities".

Chichava also stressed that "community authorities" would be involved in tax collection, and that any income they received would be based on the amount of tax they collected.