Mozambican President Daniel Chapo has appointed Joaquim Sive to the post of police general commander, sacking Bernardino Rafael, who had been at the helm of the force for nearly eight years.
Rafael had been appointed police top chief by Chapo’s predecessor, Filipe Nyusi.
Sive was until his appointment provincial commander in the central province of Sofala.
Comment
Rafael captained perhaps the most brutal and corrupt police force. During his reign, trampled upon the constitutional rights of Mozambicans, ensuring that any demonstration that was deemed against the ruling Frelimo party was quashed, and sometimes violently.
Observers say that perhaps Rafael’s cavalier attitude over human rights had to do with his family connections to Nyusi. In fact, owing to Nyusi’s protection, he oversaw the sacking of three ministers of the interior because of poor police performance, especially over an increase in the number of kidnapping cases – the sacking of the three ministers supported claims that Nyusi was protecting Rafael, who as the official charged with operations was failing miserably to fight crime.
He also lorded over the Ministry of the Interior to the extent that he did not recognise the authority of the ministers. A police source told Mozambique Insights that at the time of his sacking, Rafael was not on speaking terms with the newly appointed Interior minister, Paulo Chachine, arguing that this might have been one of the reasons that made Chapo sack him – his hubris blinded him to the fact that Nyusi is no longer president.
However, observers claim that it would be almost untenable for Chapo to keep him given that it was under his leadership that police, notably the riot unit who killed hundreds of citizens over the past three months, following widespread violence after the opposition accused the authorities of rigging the poll – over 300 people dead, including a few security members, and there were close to 700 injuries, not speaking about over 100 activists and opposition supporters killed by the security forces.
Furthermore, for the longest of time the police had supremacy over the army in the fight against terrorism in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, and in love with television cameras, Rafael made various pronouncements of the demise of the insurgents, which were followed by insurgent attacks as to dare him to make more.
Rafael’s behaviour was criticised publicly by Defence Minister Cristôvão Chume, who sources say never understood how Rafael and his command had for over three years (2020 – 2023) managed funds made available by Total Energies to help in the logistics of up to 1,000 security force members charged with protecting the gas infrastructure in Palma, in the Afungi peninsula, from the insurgents.
Perhaps, now that Rafael is out of the scene it might be possible to know what lurks beneath the surface, especially with regards to the various business ventures set up by Rafael and other members of the Makonde group and their friends, all linked to former president Nyusi.
As for Mozambicans, they hope that Sive’s appointment is a break from a recent brutal past, and that he might manage to root out corruption and organised crime from the police and guiding it to respect human rights, acting ethically and lawfully. This will also be important if Chapo wants Mozambicans to give him the legitimacy he seeks.
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