Aly Baba and the 40 thieves of public funds in Mozambique

Paulo Vilanculo"

The legend of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, one of the best-known stories from One Thousand and One Nights, tells the story of Ali Baba, a poor man who, by chance, discovers the secret hideout of a group of forty thieves in a cave. Observing the criminals, Ali Baba realizes that the cave entrance opens with the magic phrase "Open Sesame!", allowing him to enter and take some of the riches accumulated by the thieves. However, the discovery does not remain a secret: his brother, driven by ambition, tries to take advantage of the same opportunity and ends up being discovered and killed by the thieves. From then on, Ali Baba is pursued by the group, who seek to eliminate anyone who knows the hideout. The deeper issue arises when the plundering of public resources ceases to seem like an exception and becomes a recurring phenomenon. This is the concern that should accompany the current Mozambican political debate: are we facing isolated cases of misconduct or a system that allows the repetition of the same pattern? The story stands out for its cunning, greed, the danger associated with easy wealth, and the intelligence of characters who manage to overcome deceitful situations.

The comparison, of course, does not mean to claim that Mozambican rulers are literally "the forty thieves".The connection between Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is a discussion about the misappropriation of public funds in Mozambique, which may become a problem that goes beyond simply "who steals" and becomes "what system allows the looting to be repeated?"The multi-million dollar embezzlement at INSS: former director-general used 510 million meticais to buy 25 luxury properties in Mozambique, South Africa and Dubai, pointing to the former director-general of INSS, Joaquim Siúta, as the mastermind of a fraudulent scheme that embezzled more than 510 million meticais from state coffers. According to the GCCC, the money was used to acquire 25 luxury houses and apartments, including seven in the Umran II condominium (Maputo), three in Valentina, two in Pretoria and two in Dubai.The governor of the Bank of Mozambique, Rogério Zandamela, and the president of the Marracuene Municipal Council, Ahmad Sidat, are among the owners of 39 properties seized in a judicial execution brought by Kudumba Investimentos, currently underway in the 13th Commercial Section of Maputo.The problem, therefore, is not only with the "thieves." It also lies in the institutional architecture that allows certain actors privileged access to the "cave" of the State.In a report published in June 2026, CIP characterizes corruption in Mozambique as a structural and systemic phenomenon and points to weaknesses in the operationalization of institutions for preventing and combating corruption.The real drama begins when society starts to suspect that the "forty thieves" can change faces without the cave changing owners.

The risks associated with repeated episodes of alleged looting or misappropriation of public funds in Mozambique go beyond the financial dimension and can compromise the very institutional stability of the State. When corruption becomes recurrent and accountability seems insufficient, a culture of impunity takes hold, citizens' trust in institutions weakens, and the perception that access to power can mean privileged access to public resources increases.Governments change, leaders change, speeches change, and promises to fight corruption are renewed, but the same mechanisms of opacity, favoritism, and weak accountability remain. In this scenario, the problem can no longer be explained solely by the existence of corrupt individuals.A state subjected to this logic risks losing its republican function, because decisions cease to be primarily guided by the common good and begin to respond to private interests or those of restricted groups.It is at this point that corruption ceases to be merely an illegal act and begins to produce a culture of impunity.

When corrupt practices cease to be isolated incidents and begin to reach or influence the centers of political and administrative decision-making, the danger arises of the State being captured by private interests. In this situation, institutions created to serve the public interest can be used to protect networks of favoritism, guarantee privileged access to national resources, and hinder the accountability of their beneficiaries. The result can be particularly devastating: weakening of institutions, erosion of the separation between the public and private spheres, impunity, loss of citizen trust, and deterioration of democracy itself. The greatest danger lies not only in having corrupt individuals within the State, but in allowing corruption to become a way of governing the State. The most serious risk, however, is the transformation of corruption into an exceptional behavior, an informal mechanism of the State's own functioning, causing Ali Baba's "cave" to cease being merely a literary metaphor and come to represent the opacity and fragility of private appropriation of what collectively belongs to citizens.

2025/12/3