Maputo, Mozambique, 03 July – Rebuilding of the 117 kilometres of the road linking Catemba to Ponta do Ouro in the Mozambican province of Maputo, began last week Mozambican newspaper Notícias reported this week.

Work, which is expected to take two months, will be the responsibility of Empresa Nacional de Obras PĂşblicas (ENOP), which was granted the tender for management and maintenance of the road for a three-year period.

Despite not giving a figure for the value of the project, LuĂ­s Matsinhe, councillor for the Municipal District of Catembe, said funding came from the government via the National Roads Administration (ANE).

The rebuilding of the road will make Access to the tourist areas of Maputo province easier, namely Ponta do Ouro, Bela Vista, MatutuĂ­ne, Ponta Malongane, amongst others.

Portugal on Tuesday cancelled more than 390 million dollars in debt owed by Mozambique and agreed to a separate loan to help key sectors of the African country’s economy, officials said.
Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang said the cancellation of the 393.4 million dollars (249 million euros) Mozambique owed former colonial power Portugal, dating back to 1975, would help fight poverty in the country.
Portugal’s finance minister, Fernando Teixiera dos Santos, also signed a line of credit of 100 million euros to help develop economic sectors such as agriculture and mining.
Mozambique’s economy is still struggling to recover after a long period of civil war between 1975 and 1992.
Mozambique Holiday

Maputo, Mozambique, 1 July – The Ponta do Ouro Marine Reserve, in the south of Mozambique, is to be given World Heritage status by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in December of this year, the Mozambican Tourism Minister said.

Fernando Sumbana told Mozambican news agency AIM, at the end of a meeting with his South African and Swazi counterparts that the decision aimed to protect and conserve marine species such as turtles, whales and dolphins.
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MAPUTO, 3 June 2008 (IRIN) – Time is one of the few commodities that duty manager Susana Diniz, 28, does not have much of as she attends to a stream of guests booking into the 158-room Holiday Inn hotel in Mozambique‘s capital, Maputo. 

“We have been fully booked for the last few weeks, thanks to the international guests attending some conferences taking place here,” Diniz told IRIN. She recently returned home after a seven-year stint in the hospitality industry in Brazil, where she obtained a hotel management degree.
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Maputo, Mozambique, 12 June – The number of beds available in Mozambique to receive tourists during the next Football World Cup, in South Africa, is expected to rise to 25,000, the National Director for Tourism Promotion, Hiuana Abacar said Wednesday in Maputo.

According to Mozambican news agency AIM, the tourist authorities initially estimated a rise from the current 18,000 beds to 20,000, but Abacar said that that number could rise to 25,000, as seme people will open up their houses to tourists.

Of the around 450,000 tourists expected to visit South Africa for the World Cup, around 50,000 are expected to travel to Mozambique.

In preparation for the World Cup, the government of Mozambique in partnership with the private sector has been investing in tourist and Sporting facilities, AIM reported noting the construction of the new national stadium and improvements at the stadiums of Machava and Costa do Sol.

The tourism sector, in its turn, has seen high levels of investment, which in 2007 totalled US$900 million as compared to US$600 million in 2006.

The Mozambican authorities have said that investments in the sector, which now accounts for over 1.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product, not only increase capacity, but also provide a competitive advantage to Mozambique in regional terms.

WASHINGTON – Antonio Reina, the Director of Mozambique’s Forum Natureza em Perigo (FNP) has been awarded this year’s J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced today. The annual prize honors outstanding contributions to international conservation and carries with it an award of $100,000.

Established in 1974 by the late J. Paul Getty, the prize recognizes outstanding contributions to international conservation by individuals and groups. Previous winners have included famed conservationist Sir Peter Scott, pioneering chimpanzee researcher Dr. Jane Goodall, and the Charles Darwin Foundation.

Reina was honored for his contributions “to protect the world class natural resources of Mozambique” and for “his vision and advocacy, which have been key to preserving not only the nation’s outstanding coastal and marine biodiversity but also the well being of coastal communities.”

With the government and local partners, Reina has worked tirelessly for the expansion of Mozambique’s Bazaruto Archipelago National Park, and the conservation of the dugong, a rare marine mammal that is facing extinction. In the 1980’s, Reina served with Mozambique’s Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) and later established the Forum Natureza em Perigo, one of the country’s leading conservation organizations.

Reina was presented with the Getty Prize at a ceremony in Mozambique on September 7, attended by the President of WWF International, Chief Emeka Anyaoku and its General Director, Dr. Claude Martin. Nominees for the Getty Prize are selected by WWF with the winner chosen by a jury of notable conservationists. The Getty Prize, currently overseen by J. Paul Getty’s son Gordon and his family, is intended to encourage conservation innovation and heighten public awareness for conservation.

Kerry Zobor
[email protected]
202-778-9509

From Tofo Beach Cottages:

I have to write to say that there is really no reason for cancellations if the only reason is fear of xenophobia.  There is absolutely no trouble in any part of Mozambique related to these troubles in South Africa, not even in Maputo.  Garry and I have just travelled from Tofo to Nelspruit and back again and there was no sign anywhere, on the roads, or in towns of villages or anywhere, of any kind of trouble whatsoever.  The border was peaceful… I believe that the media have blown the situation completely out of proportion (as usual) and, although I know of the troubles that have been happening in South Africa, these have not been duplicated in Mozambique.  This is a safe, calm and peaceful country

From Barra Reef Resort:

Russel (owner of Barra Reef Divers) and I arrived to SA after a busy week with the Adventure Dive Challenge 9 – 18 May, on the 28th of May in the early hours of the morning at about 01:10 am!! We left Inhambane (500km north of Maputo) on the 27th 13:00 pm and were critically looking at any signs of unrest or aggression in our town. At Verdino’s, Tara & Barry the British Couple’s Restaurant in town, the “foreigners hang out” was full as usual with no sign of anything that is not normal! On the way to Maputo we stopped twice once at a small town to buy some of the “Mother in-Law” Peri-Peri sauce and once in Xai Xai at the Pharmacy. I climbed out both times with loads of vendors around me with no one even blinking an eye in the directions of aggression? Through Maputo that evening around 18:30 it was hectic as always with the traffic and even more so with the darkness!

You are only a good driver once you have driven through Maputo at night! In all that “craziness” we passed without incident & even at the toll gate in Maputo with quite a long queue, widows wined down, next to other cars no one even blinked at us? At the Komati Poort border gate near Nelspruit (Resano Garcia) later that evening there were almost no cars or people even and we passed as if there were never any unrest in SA?

The only negative thing that did occur, happened last week at the height of the unrest in SA clients did drive back and on the way they were shown the finger over the throat and screamed at.