Mozambique's new Ambassador to Portugal, Stella Pinto Zeca, promised "hard" work for the Mozambican community in Portugal this weekend in Lisbon and appealed for everyone's cooperation.

"I want the Embassy to be close to the community" so that it (the community) "feels its presence", said Stella Pinto Novo Zeca, quoted by AIMSpeaking this Saturday at her first contact with the Mozambican community, after being accredited by the Portuguese head of state, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, on February 19th.

"The house is yours," stressed the new ambassador, promising to work for everyone, regardless of party, in an audience of around 100 Mozambicans at a tourist resort in Lisbon. She also promised to consolidate the work of her predecessor, Joaquim Bule, by improving the service provided to Mozambicans.

Under Bule's mandate, the Mozambican community in Portugal has achieved a number of things, including being able to obtain a criminal record, passport and identity card, among other services, without having to travel to Maputo.

On the occasion, the new team that makes up the Embassy in Portugal and the Consulate in Lisbon was presented. More than six thousand Mozambicans currently live in Portugal.

A teacher by profession, she graduated from the Pedagogical University (UP) and was appointed Ambassador in January this year by the Mozambican head of state, Filipe Nyusi.

In the local elections of October 2023, Stella Novo Zeca was the head of the list for Frelimo, the ruling party in Mozambique, for the municipality of Beira, Sofala province, and lost to Albano Carige, the candidate for her own succession from the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), the second opposition party.