The tender for the acquisition of eight aircraft for Mozambique Airlines (LAM) has been canceled by the government, the President of the Republic, Daniel Chapo, announced on Monday.

As he pointed out, the leadership of the process to build LAM's own fleet was entrusted to "foxes" with their own interests. As he noted, the management of the flag carrier was robbed by cartels of corrupt "lobbyists and nhonguistas".

"One of the impact actions we had planned for the first hundred days of our governance is the acquisition of three aircraft for LAM. However, when we decided that we would have at least three aircraft available before the hundred days were up, we discovered that within LAM, we were handing over foxes to look after a hen house, or cats to look after rats. We discovered that within our company there are people with conflicts of interest. They don't care that LAM has its own planes. They are interested in LAM continuing to rent planes because they earn commissions from it. And we have decided, as a government, that we are going to restructure LAM," he noted.

Speaking in Maputo on the occasion of taking stock of his first 100 days in office, the Head of State said that LAM's restructuring process will include the interruption or termination of careers.

According to PR, a team was deployed to assess aircraft in Europe, but after 15 days, they said they hadn't even managed to inspect one. "It doesn't make sense," said Chapo.

"That's why we had to cancel the whole process and reorient it, since it's important to look after the interests of the people and not the interests of people or groups. In this sense, the restructuring will include restructuring people to go home, sit down and let us work, so that we can acquire new aircraft. We're saying this because the process concerning the first three aircraft led to people leaving Mozambique, with the money from new shareholders available, having gone to Europe for 15 days to inspect planes and then coming back to Mozambique and saying that they hadn't managed to inspect a single plane, something that makes no sense and is illogical," he lamented.