The President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, today dismissed the Minister of Transport and Communications, Janfar Abdulai, and the deputy minister, Manuela Joaquim Ribeiro, according to a note from the Press Office of the Presidency of the Republic received by our newsroom.

However, the document does not state whether new people have already been appointed to fill the two posts.

Janfar Abdulai has remained in office since he was appointed in 2020. However, early on, voices from civil society spoke out several times about the young minister's alleged lack of competence for his "overlong" departure.

Janfar Abdulai's resignation comes at a time when the country finds itself in a tangle of problems in the sector for which the Minister clearly did not have the manpower to deal.

An example of this is the conflict between the National Institute of Road Transport (INATRO) and Brithol Michcoma, for non-payment of a debt that led to the suspension of the issuing of biometric driving licenses.

The constant fuel price hikes that raise some suspicion as to their real necessity and that have brought with them the rise in transportation prices.

More recently, and perhaps most worryingly, the decadence of Mozambique Telecom, SA (Tmcel), which owes the State institutions about a billion meticais, which is embroiled in debt and was forced to give up some of its infrastructure to close the balance, and which is paying its employees in dribs and drabs.

These may be among the few management factors that precipitated the downfall of Janfar and his vice.