Hundreds of young Mozambicans marched on Saturday 18 May in Maputo against the increase in communication tariffs, claiming that this is a measure to limit access to information and promising to go to court claiming that it has no legal basis.
‘It’s a political measure to silence Mozambicans,’ activist Quitéria Guirengane told Lusa, representing the group that has met in recent days with the National Communications Institute of Mozambique (INCM), the regulatory body, and is taking to the streets today in the face of a lack of response.
‘We want to demand the total repeal of the resolution approving these tariffs, which are completely insensitive, immoral, anti-competitive, inhumane, unsustainable and disproportionate, because they seriously violate our fundamental rights, whether the right to access information, the right to education, to work, to identity, enshrined in the Constitution,’ she added during today’s march.
At issue is the INCM’s publication on 19 February of a resolution establishing new minimum tariffs in the telecommunications sector for voice, messaging and data, the adaptation of which by the three operators since 4 May has led to a real increase in tariffs and the end of unlimited packages.
The organisers of today’s march assure us, however, that ‘this is not a measure proposed by the operators’ and that it is the result of intervention by the regulator alone.
‘The INCM, while saying that it is not responsible for the measure, is giving all the signs that it is the one insisting on it,’ accused Quitéria Guirengane.
‘We want the heads of the higher orders who are preventing the will of the citizens from being materialised,’ said the march’s spokesperson, recalling that the consequences of the tariff increases, especially the end of unlimited data packages, are being felt in all areas.
For example, in agriculture, where seeds are ‘imported, bought over the Internet’, or to get an identity card and passport, study or create a job.
‘These are the people we are fighting for,’ said Quitéria Guirengane.
Today’s march included a call for a ‘general operation to cancel and block’ the operators’ social media pages, followed by a “legal action against the INCM”.
‘It’s a decision that lacks justification. We have already realised that there is no study. Secondly, it kills the idea of fair competition. Thirdly, the regulation itself requires that there be a public hearing and there wasn’t one,’ he explained.
Xavier Nhanala, 28, is a teacher and joined today’s march because the cost of telecoms has become unsustainable.
‘We don’t even have books, the Internet is the only vehicle for seeking information and knowledge,’ he explained, assuming that from the 1,000 meticals (14.3 euros) he used to spend per month to have Internet and make calls, he now spends four times as much.
‘After two or three days, the Internet runs out. And note that nothing has changed in the way I work,’ he said, claiming not to understand the decisions: “Unless there is a political agenda to limit information to Mozambican citizens.”
Zaquia Tuacal, a 32-year-old cultural mediator, also says that the measure ‘is a way of limiting young people’, the ‘future generation that wants change’
‘Before I used to spend 500 meticals [7.2 euros] a month, today I can say that so far, since the price rise, I’ve spent 800 meticals [11.5 euros], in a week and a bit (…) Before I used to transform 1 GB with 15 meticals [21 euro cents], today it costs 70 meticals (one euro), which is the price of a kilo of sugar, a kilo of rice. It’s absurd,’ he says, holding a sign.
With the Mozambican flag on his back, Francisco Tembi, 39, a television programme producer, describes the new tariffs as an ‘aberration’, above all because of the limited access to the Internet, which ‘is not a whim’, but ‘a great necessity’ and a ‘guarantee of livelihood for many families’.
‘In 24 hours I used to spend five meticals [seven cents], now I have to spend 50 meticals [72 cents] to do the same. It’s unaffordable.
The president of the INCM said earlier that he had instructed telecoms operators to withdraw unlimited data and voice packages to avoid ‘market collapse’ and ‘unfair competition’, and also to allow the market to open up more to attract investment in the sector.
‘They were damaging the economy. The 30-day packages continue, but consumers can’t talk unlimitedly to the point where it costs them zero,’ Tuaha Mote explained.
