The Public Prosecutor's Office (MP), through the Attorney General's Office (PGR) of Maputo City, has filed an action with the Administrative Court (TA) of Maputo City to request a declaration of nullity of the orders of the Municipal Council of the country's capital that granted the title of Right of Use and Enjoyment of Land (DUAT) to Top Logística, SA, a company that was about to build a luxury condominium of 28 villas and a pedestrian circuit in the Costa do Sol mangrove swamp.

The action comes after a response from the Maputo City Council claiming that "the act carried out was not tainted with defects, since in its opinion all the procedures for issuing the respective license were followed".

According to a note issued by the PGR on Tuesday (5), and to which the MZNews had access to, the Public Prosecutor's Office believes that the area in question is an environmental protection zone which the Mozambican state is internationally bound to protect, due to its importance in biodiversity conservation.

“The Public Prosecutor's Office also believes that socio-economic development must be sustainable, without jeopardizing the fundamental rights of citizens", reads the document.

The legal dispute over that space dates back to April last year when the Center for Public Integrity and environmentalist Carlos Serra denounced the construction of the residential condominium in that forbidden zone and that its implementation would put biodiversity and human life at risk.

In this regard, a joint study by the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Centre for Environmental Law and Biodiversity and Quality of Life (CEDAB), of the Faculty of Law at Eduardo Mondlane University, concluded, among other things, that "the Partial Urbanization Plan for the Maputo City waterfront area (PPU) considers mangroves to be a heritage of great importance, which must be safeguarded, recovered and, where possible, enhanced, given its ecosystemic importance for living beings, in stabilizing soils against erosion, biofiltration of pollutants, carbon sequestration, thus contributing to the mitigation of climate change."