An agent of the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), B. J. Macamo, assigned to the 6th Police Station in Bairro 25 de Junho, in Maputo City, swindled a shopkeeper named Ezequiel Justino Maunde out of 200 bags of onions at the Zimpeto Wholesale Market on July 26.

When asked to pay what he owes, he uses his position as a SERNIC agent to threaten the shopkeeper and thus evade his responsibilities.

It all started when, on July 26, Ezequiel Justino Maunde was approached by Lourenço Dinis Macuácua, a young man who introduced himself as a worker of B. J. Macamo, a SERNIC agent assigned to the 16th Police Station of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) in Maputo City.

With an urgent need for 200 sacks of onions for a supposed commercial operation in Tete province, B. J. Macamo assured Ezequiel Justino Maunde that payment would be made within two days.

Maunde, used to such transactions and knowing Macuácua as the agent's collaborator, blindly trusted his promises.

Two days passed and, when he tried to collect the amount owed, Maunde was ignored. The agent, who had previously guaranteed the seriousness of the deal, refused to answer calls and, when confronted, was hostile and threatening. He claimed that the deal hadn't gone through due to the incompetence of his own employee.

The officer's attitude was only the beginning of a series of acts of abuse of power. When Maunde, already suspicious and distressed, went to the 24th Police Station to formalize his complaint, he was not only snubbed, but also threatened with physical assault by the very officer who was supposed to be investigating him. The threat was made in the presence of the officer's colleagues, who stood by inertly, in a clear demonstration of the moral corrosion that seems to have taken root in the security forces.

Desperate and not knowing where to turn, Maunde registered a report under the number 519/24th Precinct/2024. However, he fears that, due to the agent's nefarious influences, the case will be buried in the depths of corrupt bureaucracy, and that the 200 sacks of onions, the fruit of his sweat and hard work, will never be recovered.

Maunde's story is not an isolated case; it is a reflection of a system that repeatedly fails to protect the most vulnerable. When those charged with upholding the law become the first to break it, who can guarantee justice? The case of Ezequiel Justino Maunde demands more than just an internal investigation. It demands that Mozambican society wake up to the terrifying reality that police impunity not only destroys lives, but erodes the foundations of a rule of law that increasingly seems to be a mirage. (Text: CDD)