The Government has decided to cancel the international tender for the purchase of eight aircraft for LAM, a move that reveals deep tensions and divergent interests within the flag-carrier airline. The announcement was made by the President of the Republic, Daniel Chapo, this Monday in Maputo, in the speech marking the first hundred days of government.
According to the Head of State, the process was handed to individuals with interests unrelated to the public good, whom he compared to “foxes guarding a henhouse”. The metaphor, used with clear intent, points to the existence of elements in LAM's structure whose priority would not be strengthening its own fleet, but maintaining practices that guarantee private gain at the expense of the company's external dependence.
“What we have discovered inside our company is worrying. There are people with conflicts of interest who do not want LAM to have its own aircraft. They want it to keep leasing, because that way they receive commissions,” said Chapo, in a tone of denunciation that left no room for ambiguity.
The Government's promise was to put at least three aircraft into service before the hundred days were up. The funds were available, coming from new shareholders. However, a team sent to Europe to inspect the aircraft returned without having assessed a single one, after two weeks on the ground. “It makes no sense,” said the President, visibly indignant.
In the light of these facts, the Executive decided to cancel the tender and deeply restructure the company. The process will explicitly include changes of personnel and possible dismissals. “We are going to restructure LAM, including people, so that they go home, sit down and let us work,” Chapo declared.
The presidential intervention was not limited to criticism: it served as a clear signal of a break with entrenched practices. A LAM with a future, the President seems to say, requires above all a quiet, and firm, purge of the internal obstacles blocking progress.
