The Center for Democracy and Development (CDD) is concerned about the alleged judicial persecution of the Sofala Provincial Attorney's Office against an 'altruistic' citizen who, with his own initiative and resources, decided to build a bridge that connects two neighborhoods in the city of Beira.

The indignation expressed in the CDD statement refers to the fact that the Attorney General's Office never proceeds in this way when similar initiatives occur in municipalities where the ruling party reigns. In this case, the municipality of Beira is run by the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).

In this sense, that organization understands that the prosecutor's office is persecuting the citizen identified as Ivan Pontavida, and that this "may constrain other Mozambican citizens interested in supporting communities [on their own initiative] that are so much in need of assistance that the state itself is unable to provide."

CDD says that the Sofala Provincial Prosecutor's Office should rejoice at this attitude and calls on the institution to focus on its institutional mandate, as "it has no shortage of matters to investigate, such as corruption, embezzlement of public funds, timber smuggling, and the growing wave of kidnappings that have been occurring in that province."

"The Sofala Provincial Attorney's Office requested, through Oficio No. 115/GPPC/PPRS/069/2022, from the Beira Municipal Council information about the construction of a bridge between the neighborhoods of Macurungo and Estoril, on the initiative and account of a citizen who answers to the name of Ivan Pontavida," reads the CDD statement.

The letter from the prosecutor's office was issued on July 18, two days after the inauguration of the bridge, which is about five meters long and three meters wide.

Information gathered by MZNews states that the citizen in question is a lawyer and has invested, with the support of the community, five million meticais for the construction of that bridge.

Without the bridge, residents were forced to travel about seven kilometers to connect the two areas, because the footbridge, which exists to this day, does not provide safety.

In 2020, Bairros residents requested material for the construction of a bridge, but the city council said it was out of budget.

In January of this year, the same community mobilized funds and was authorized by the city council to go ahead with the works, in May, under the supervision of the municipality's technicians. The bridge was handed over to the residents on the 16th of this month.

However, this bridge, according to the city council, could be destroyed within two years, when work starts on the second phase of the rehabilitation of the drainage ditches in Beira City, which will include the area where the infrastructure is located.