The Mozambican journalist and social activist, Clemente Carlos, is organizing a peaceful march in the city of Maputo, scheduled for next Friday (28), with the aim of encouraging the competent authorities to reduce toll fees on the Maputo Ring Road.

"Please wear black in mourning corruption and protesting costly fees and let's release our voice peacefully," reads a post on Clemente Carlos' social network Facebook page.

According to information in our possession, the purpose is for the fees to be half the amount stipulated by the Ministries of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources and the Economy and Finance, and later published by Rede Viária de Moçambique, SA (REVIMO) - the company with the concession rights for the Maputo ring road. Learn more here

Clemente Carlos and a group of young activists accuse those ministries and REVIMO of extorting the Mozambican people, in an act of corruption that ignores the difficulties of people living outside the cities of Maputo and Matola.

"We weren't notified of the fees until two weeks before the collections began," Clemente said in an interview on a television program Tuesday.

The argument they raise is that one should not pay the same amount on the Maputo ring road because, according to him, its construction has already been paid for. But also, because this amount is the same charged on the Matola toll road - a road built by South Africans, whose fee serves to pay for the road itself and its maintenance.

"The circular has already been paid for and it makes no sense to pay the same price," he said.

In the same television program, broadcast on online platforms, Clemente said he was receiving threats of physical assault and death.

"There is nothing better than to be arrested defending your people," he retorted, while recalling figures such as Eduardo Mondlane, Carlos Cardoso, and Afonso Dhlakama, as men who fought for the well-being of the Mozambican nation.

On the other hand, he accuses the Police of the Republic of Mozambique of being planning a boycott of the march.

"The police will be at strategic points. There is a tendency to curb the exercise of democracy," he said.

The march against toll fees is scheduled for next Friday, January 28th, with the starting point at the Zimpeto market to the Kumbeza toll station along the National Road number 1 (EN1).

The document (below) giving notice of the march was submitted to the Maputo City Council on Monday.