Joseph Hanlon
The fallout from the murder of a corruption-busting Mozambican banker may complicate South African banking giant Absa’s bid to buy the bank the murdered man headed.
Banco Austral’s interim president, Antnio Siba-Siba Macucua, was thrown down a 15-storey stairwell at the bank’s Maputo headquarters on August 11, two days before Absa was to begin a due-diligence audit of the bank. Absa decided to pursue the deal nevertheless, and is understood to be seriously considering making a formal offer to buy a majority stake.
It has been reported in Mozambique that Siba-Siba intended to pass sensitive information to Absa’s due diligence team.
Siba-Siba’s murder is being linked to the assassination of journalist Carlos Cardoso on November 22 last year. Cardoso was investigating the scandal-ridden Mozambican banking system, where at least $400-million (now about R3,4-billion) has been lost by the two privatised state banks, Austral and Banco Comercial de Moambique.
On Monday formal charges were laid against the six people accused of killing Cardoso. They were remanded in custody pending trial.
Austral was privatised in 1997 to Southern Bank Berhad of Malaysia and a consortium of Mozambicans close to the ruling Frelimo party leadership, headed by former minister of industry Octvio Muthemba. Bad lending including to political cronies and corruption were rampant. By the middle of last year Austral was insolvent. Unable or unwilling to plug the hole, the private shareholders handed back their shares to the government on April 3 this year.
Mozambican central bank Governor Adrano Maleiane said at the time that the hole in Austral was $150-million. It is said some leading Frelimo figures wanted to simply close the bank and bury the history of corruption. But it appears that a few key people in the government were fed up with the growing corruption, and demanded reprivatisation and investigation.
A preliminary tender for the reprivatisation was called, which Absa won. But before that Maleiane appointed Siba-Siba, who was the central bank head of banking supervision, as acting president of Austral to clean up the mess.
The highly respected 33-year-old economist began chasing some senior Frelimo figures who were not repaying loans. He also began looking at improper foreign exchange dealings, and possible illegal and improper activities by some senior bank officials.
But then came Siba-Siba’s murder. Mozambican police, assisted by their South African counterparts who were summoned to the scene where Siba-Siba fell to his death on August 11, immediately concluded it was foul play.
The murders of both Siba-Siba and journalist Cardoso were public, and have been interpreted not simply as a case of investigators being silenced, but also as warnings to others even an attempt to scare off Absa.
But Absa decided to stay the course and began its due diligence audit on August 13. It is understood that in spite of Siba-Siba’s death Absa received substantial amounts of information. Mozambican sources say Absa found evidence of corruption by both Malaysians and Mozambicans.
The problem for Absa is how to take over Banco Austral without becoming immersed in a battle within the ruling elite over whether to pursue those who robbed Banco Austral.
This is the second banking crisis with political overtones in the country. Last year Banco Comercial de Moambique (BCM) admitted a hole of $160-million on top of $100-million put in by the government earlier.
Those charged this week with Cardoso’s murder include businessman Ayob Abdul Satar and former BCM bank manager Vicente Ramaya, the alleged masterminds of his death.