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evidence of foul play in death of banker (AIM) 13th August, 2001. The Mozambican police have said that evidence is mounting showing the Antonio Siba Siba Macuacua, the provisional chairman of the board of directors of the Austral Bank, was victim of a crime. Macuacua's body was on Saturday found smashed on the ground floor of the building housing the bank's headquarters in down-town Maputo.Police could not first commit themselves, but on Monday sources said that Macuacua had not fallen but pushed down from the 14th floor where he had been working that day through the staircase's well.It is thanks to the help of South African police and medical experts that it was ascertained that Macuacua had indeed been murdered, said the police source. After being notified of the death of Macuacua the Mozambican police had taken the caution of cordonning off the area until the arrival of the South Africans - this is assumed to have been important in that it became difficult for the evidence to be tampered with. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi said that he lamented what had happened, and that the country should not be held hostage by criminals.He added that the reprivatisation process of the Austral Bank will continue with the parameters defined by government. For his part, Manuel Tome, the secretary general of the ruling Frelimo party, also strongly condemned the murder of Macuacua. Tome added that organised crime is becoming increasingly worrying in Mozambique. "It worries us because it causes the loss of life which is the most precious commodity of human beings; it destabilises the country politically, financially and economically; and it sows fears and panic in the citizens", he stressed. Macuacua was working on a report on the institution's financial account that he was supposed to submit on Monday to ABSA. Macuacua was appointed provisional chairman of the board of directors of the bank in April after it had become clear that the shareholders were unable or unwilling to recapitalise the bank.He was charged with leading a team of experts who had to make a rigorous survey of the true state of the bank, and restructure it. A top economist with the Central Bank, Macuacua soon caused ripples by publishing a list of debtors and demanded that the debts - notably from the portfolio of non-performing loans - be paid, and he and his team had prepared the bank's reprivatisation process. By 1 July the bank had recovered 60 billion meticais (about 277,450 US dollars). |
