A source in the Council told AIM on Monday that the purpose of the Commission is to ascertain the facts. The commission consists of three of the Councils seven judges Lucia Ribeiro, Manuel Franque, and Norberto Carrilho. Ribeiro and Franque were both appointed to the Council by the countrys parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. Ribeiro was nominated by the parliamentary group of the ruling Frelimo Party, and Franque by the main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo. Carrilho was appointed by the Supreme Council of the Judicial Magistracy (CSMJ), the regulatory body for judges.
The Commission was set up on Friday and has ten days to produce its report. The Constitutional Council is its own disciplinary body, and on the basis of the findings from the Commission of Inquiry, it may decide whether to proceed with disciplinary measures against Mondlane. The accusations against Mondlane are extremely serious, involving the use of Constitutional Council funds for very large sums in personal expenditure.
Perhaps the worst of the alleged abuses is that Mondlane has obliged the Council to make monthly payments on a mortgage he took out for a house that cost 24.3 million meticais (about 784,000 US dollars at todays exchange rates). The payments were disguised as rent on the house but the house is registered in Mondlanes name.
The independent weekly Savana last week published a list of goods and services that Mondlane allegedly purchased for his own benefit and that of his family, using the Councils budget. These personal expenses amounted to 8.8 million meticais (not including the mortgage payments.) The expenses included over 2.1 million meticais spent on furniture imported from South Africa, and the services used for clearing it through customs. Other furniture and decorations acquired locally cost the council over 3.5 million meticais.
Bills for dental services for Mondlane, his wife and daughter at a private dental clinic amounted to over 111,000 meticais, and the Council even paid over 127,000 meticais for an air ticket so that Mondlanes wife could accompany him to a meeting in Lisbon. Mondlane also unilaterally sacked the general secretary of the Council, Geraldo Saranga, and appointed in his stead Ana Juliana Lucas e Saute even though she did not have the requisite five years experience as a judge.
The other six judges on the Constitutional Council objected to Julianas appointment. Mondlane ignored all the objections and, on 25 February, swore Juliana into office, in a ceremony that was boycotted by all the other judges
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