South African lawyer André Thomashausen, who yesterday announced "the end of Mozambique's appeals" against the extradition of its former Finance Minister Manuel Chang to the United States of America (USA), said that the Mozambican government has already spent more than three million dollars since it started the process.

In the view of André Thomashausen, of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, "this puts an end to the costly abuses of the judicial process that Mozambique's PGR has insisted on and which have already cost Mozambican taxpayers more than three million dollars in legal fees."

André Thomashausen also believes that for Manuel Chang, the decision comes just in time to escape another winter in the South African prison system. "South Africa is experiencing daily power cuts of 10 out of every 24 hours and therefore the prisons will be operating without any means of heating this winter," he concluded.

At the age of 63, Manuel Chang was arrested on December 29, 2018 at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, en route to Dubai, on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by the US on December 27, for his alleged involvement in the so-called hidden debts case.

During the government of Armando Guebuza, between 2005 and 2010, Manuel Chang is said to have endorsed the debts secretly contracted in favor of Ematum, Proindicus and MAM, public companies mentioned in the US indictment, allegedly created for this purpose in the maritime safety and fisheries sectors, between 2013 and 2014.