At least 10 judges have been expelled over the past five years for embezzlement of public funds and illicit charges. These figures were shared with RFI by Esmeraldo Matavele, president of the Mozambican Judges Association, who considers corruption a serious issue that must be tackled within the country’s judicial system.
“In the past five, six, seven years, we’ve had an average of 10 judges expelled or dismissed due to corruption — mainly related to the misappropriation of funds from court coffers. Unfortunately, we have colleagues who, when faced with personal issues, dip into money paid by citizens for fines and fees. A judge might take 20,000 or 50,000 meticais to solve a personal problem, and ends up being expelled,” explained the magistrate.
“We’ve also had colleagues expelled over case-related issues — supposedly for charging a citizen a fee. These are very sad cases that embarrass us, but we must keep fighting to ensure we have zero corruption in the judiciary in the future,” added Esmeraldo Matavele.
He acknowledged the work of the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), saying: “What CIP does — investigating and exposing these cases — is very important. Our request is that they don’t publish names and faces prematurely, but continue the investigations. We also urge citizens to report judicial corruption. We must all fight together, but we shouldn’t share names and faces on Facebook or on TV — that’s prohibited by the Constitution,” he stressed.
Earlier this month, the CIP released findings from an investigation conducted between July and December 2024 into Mozambique’s judicial system.
After closely examining three court cases — two civil cases from the Maputo Provincial Court and one criminal case from the Marracuene District Court — the NGO found “a series of procedural, legal irregularities and bad practices by magistrates and court officers” in all three cases.
The CIP noted issues such as “the listing and division of property that didn’t belong to the parties, the issuance of two rulings for the same case and on the same matter, violations of preventive detention deadlines, breaches of human rights, violations of principles of equality and good faith, as well as breaches of ethical and professional conduct rules by magistrates and court officers. It also found signs of bail money being embezzled, suspicions of corruption, and reports of abusive behavior by magistrates.”
In response, the Centre for Public Integrity called for “oversight by judicial inspection bodies of the cases handled by magistrates and court officers” and advocated for the “implementation and strengthening of secure and effective whistleblowing mechanisms, so that citizens can report acts of corruption in the judiciary without fear of reprisals, thereby ensuring effective access to justice for Mozambican citizens.”
Source: RFI
