The Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), against the backdrop of a judicial decisiondecided not to accept the candidacy of Álvaro Massingue, President of the Mozambique Chamber of Commerce (CCM), for violating the association's statutes.

According to Agostinho Vuma, president of the CTA, the association's Governing Council had decided yesterday morning to reconsider Massingue's candidacy "and reinstate the candidate, outside of legal proceedings", but the CCM, through its representatives, "insisted on not following the statutes" in order to secure the candidacy.

For Vuma, the CCM should, before taking legal action, "exhaust the internal institutional recourse" and let the Bureau of the CTA Assembly decide on the case.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Vuma said that there was no court in the country capable of overturning the Governing Board's decision to keep Massingue's candidacy off the table.

"No court in this country has revoked the applicability of the CTA's statutes and regulations. The instruments remain fully in force. There will be no court to decide the disciplinary process of the CTA. No one will revoke it unless it is the institution, the General Assembly of our CTA," he said.

Nonetheless, Agostinho Vuma noted that Order No. 17/25E of the KaMpfumo Municipal District Court has no practical effect on the case in question since it is biased by spelling errors, as well as purporting to act on a "possible" Governing Board Resolution, issued on April 17, 2017, as opposed to 2025, as it was supposed to. For the CTA, this has also raised doubts about the legitimacy of the document in question.

"That Order mentions the suspension. The disciplinary process, both judicially and institutionally, remains and continues. Our Board knows that it has the material to do so. Considering the date of the order, the Deliberation for us is non-existent, and the Court's decision is unenforceable and without effect for the present context," he said.

The President of the CTA expressed concern that the CCM was using unorthodox maneuvers to validate their intentions, including speeding up the judicial processes that favor Massingue's candidacy.

In addition, Vuma said that the CCM had left the deadline for the scheduling and subsequent submission of candidacies until the end of yesterday (24).

The President of the CTA said that the representatives of the CCM went to the Secretariat of the business association to submit a letter requesting an appointment this morning (24). They asked for the document to be accepted, but with the date of the previous day (23rd).