Interview Borges Nhamire, Mosambik 2016.

Borges Nhamire is an investigative journalist and researcher working for the Center of Public Integrity (CIP – Centro de Integridade Publica). He is specialized on Public-Private-Partnerships in various sectors of the Mozambican economy, such as: infrastructure, railways, electricity supply, natural resources etc.

The CIP is a civil society organisation which aims to create public awareness on governance. The lack of transparency and corruption are the biggest harms to Mozambique’s development.

Although he has very little time, I got the chance to meet and to talk with him about his work.

I asked him why the Public Private Partnerships are so important for Mozambique.

The problem connected to PPP-projects is the lack of information and transparency, so the door stands wide open for corruption.

Since years Mozambique´s GDP is growing around 7% a year but it´s still belonging to the poorest countries in Africa.

Around 60 % of 27 Million people still live in extreme poverty, which means they live with less than one dollar a day. The worse distribution of wealth in Mozambique can be a big problem for a county, that had for 16 years one of the bloodiest civil wars in Africa.

The civil war ended in 1992, but the two former civil war enemies named RENAMO and FRELIMO just stepped into a military conflict again.

Mozambique is having a very hard time at the moment because to its inner problems comes the fact that its export-based-economy is suffering from the low prices for natural resources on the international market.

There is a big mistrust in institutions, says Borges Nahmire. Especially with the police nobody wants to get in contact. I have see more than ones people giving money to the police so that small things don´t become big.

Since decades Mozambique depends on international aid but its situation is still terrifying. In the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) a statistic of life expectancy, education, and income per capita the country is at position 180 out of 188 countries.

But the problem with aid programs is that the money often doesn´t reach the people.

One very important tool to fight corruption is an independent media-system.

There are newspapers, radio and television in Mozambique but the working conditions for journalist are still very poor and they are not immune to corruption.