Vendors accuse the Maputo City Council (CMCM) of ordering, without warning, the demolition of the 1 de Agosto Market (Mercado do Metical) on September 16, 2020, where they had been trading for more than 40 years.

The complaint was forwarded this week to the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD) stating that all 48 commercial infrastructures (34 fixed and 14 mobile stalls) have been reduced to rubble to make way for the construction of a police station.

After the demolition, the traders requested an audience with the then mayor of Maputo, Eneas Comiche, but received no response. In search of justice, they appealed to the Maputo City Administrative Court, where the authorities promised a sentence by May 2021. However, despite requests for speedy proceedings and a new hearing with the president of the court - held on June 30, 2022 - the legal outcome of the situation is still pending, writes CDD.

The complainants claimed that it was a legal trade, as they had even paid their taxes to the municipality on a regular basis.

Desperate, they asked the institutions to intervene, namely: Ombudsman; First Secretary of the Maputo City Frelimo Party; Secretary of the Polana Caniço Neighborhood and the Superior Council of the Administrative Judiciary, but to date they have received no response. Meanwhile, the space where the market used to be is currently occupied by rubble.

Against this backdrop, the shopkeepers are calling on the authorities to pay due attention to the case, with a view to repairing the damage and restoring legal order.