The Mozambican government has said it respects the Constitutional Council’s ruling declaring several provisions of the Telecommunications Traffic Control Regulation unconstitutional. The regulation, approved under Decree No. 48/2025 of 16 December, had granted the National Communications Institute of Mozambique (INCM) the authority to block communications under certain circumstances.
“We start from the principle that we are in a democratic country, where democracy prevails. We respect our institutions and, therefore, we respect the decision of the Constitutional Council,” Communications and Digital Transformation Minister Américo Muchanga said on Monday, 3 August, on the sidelines of an official event in Maputo.
The ruling is contained in Judgment No. 6/CC/2026, dated 29 July, and was issued following a request for abstract successive constitutional review submitted by the Ombudsman, Isaque Chande. The petition challenged several provisions of the regulation, which had faced significant public opposition since coming into force.
Under the regulation, INCM could order the partial or total blocking of telecommunications in the event of an “imminent risk to public security.” The decree stipulated that, “by way of a court order, the regulatory authority may issue an instruction for partial or total blocking” whenever the security of the state, individuals, property, or service availability was at stake.
The regulation entered into force in December 2025, approximately one year after widespread telecommunications blackouts — including on social media platforms — were recorded during protests that followed the general elections of October 2024. Those demonstrations resulted in more than 400 deaths, as well as the destruction and looting of businesses and public property.
In his submission to the Constitutional Council, the Ombudsman argued that the decree established a regime of monitoring, data collection, service suspension, and intervention in telecommunications networks capable of affecting fundamental rights, in particular freedom of expression and information, the right to privacy, and the inviolability of communications.
In its assessment, the Constitutional Council found that the Telecommunications Law, cited by the government as the legal basis for the regulation, did not authorise the creation of a permanent communications surveillance system, as it contained no provision permitting structural and permanent monitoring of communications. On those grounds, the judges concluded that the executive had exceeded the limits of regulatory authority conferred upon it by the Constitution.
In its ruling, the Constitutional Council found that the regulation imposed significant restrictions on fundamental rights and emphasised that such limitations may only be established by legislation approved by the Assembly of the Republic. “We are therefore faced with a situation of violation of the principle and the positive norms of the rule of law reserve,” the judgment states, concluding that the government had substituted itself for the parliamentary legislature in defining the essential content of those rights.
Source: Diário Económico
Original article: https://www.diarioeconomico.co.mz/2026/08/03/trends/telecom/__trashed-237/
