The whereabouts of the South African citizen who has been detained on suspicion of aiding and abetting Islamic separatists has finally been confirmed to be in Mueda, a town to the south west of Palma where Andre Hanekom runs a logistics company.
His wife has since posted on social media that he’s kept in detention barracks, adding that “keeping detainees in military barracks is illegal”.
She added that it had been more than 95 days since her husband had received bail from a judge who found no basis for the charges brought against him for alleged suspicion of involvement with terrorist group Ahl al-Sunnah.
Despite posting bail shortly thereafter, Hanekom remained behind bars.
Francis Hanekom’s version of events also appear to contradict statements made by Ndivhuwo Mabaya, spokesperson for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco).
Last week he told FTW that Hanekom had been arrested three times on suspicion of helping machete-wielding agents provocateurs fighting for the secession of gas-rich Cabo Delgado province from the rest of Mozambique.
But the country’s Defence Minister, Atanásio Mtumuke, has denounced the so-called paramilitary actions near Mozambique’s border with Tanzania as acts of unemployed hoodlums hell-bent on destabilising a region for the sake of misunderstood Quran readings.
Other sources from within the same government have, however, accused Hanekom of providing logistical support for the firebrand militants, claiming to have evidence that he paid them monthly salaries of around $160.
South Africa’s international relations minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, has also softened her tone since last week and has said that he has been located and that he will receive whatever support can be mustered through SA’s embassy in Maputo.
It remains to be seen though why a businessman in his 60s who has operated a slipway used for tourism and logistics in an area he has called home for almost 30 years would throw in his lot with a terror group.
However, Mozambique’s government believes that Cabo Delgado is rife with environmental dilettantes and dissidents resisting exploration along the country’s northern-most seashore.
Hanekom’s company, Palma Marine, incidentally owns one of the only and most stable slipways through which the coastal town’s deep water port can be accessed.
It’s also interesting that he’s been refusing the advances of interested buyers representing companies eager to mine the area’s substantial deposits of liquid natural gas.
