Are Maputo-Pretoria relations deteriorating?

PRETORIA, South Africa

Robert McBride recently fell into the hands of Mozambican authorities for allegedly spying on terrorism-related matters in Cabo Delgado. He is none other than the head of international operations for the South African secret services.

Earlier this year, four South African spies were also caught in Mozambican territory, leading the country’s security minister to visit Maputo in April. This fact caused some surprise, given the ‘fraternal’ relations between the two countries, and confirmed the tensions that the neighbours are keen to hide.

In the opinion of Manuel de Araújo, a politician and specialist in international relations, “the arrest of South African agents is yet another sign that diplomatic relations between Maputo and Pretoria are not at their best”.

For Araújo, “this is another sign among the various signs”. He cites other examples: the non-resolution of the case of former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang, detained in South Africa for more than two years without this country taking a position on the matter; and the postponement more than once of the Troika session of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to decide on the involvement of SADC forces in Cabo Delgado.

Despite the recent incidents, the two neighbours deny any tension, preferring to “settle the matter in the family”, as has been customary in the SADC. But André Thomashausen, a German specialist in international law residing in South Africa, devalues the “propaganda” of the neighbours and recalls that the relationship was never perfect.

According to Thomashausen, the malaise is largely based on a non-aggression agreement signed with Botha, during the Apartheid regime in South Africa, in the 1980s, when Maputo handed over, in exchange, the ANC comrades refugees in Mozambique, which displeased the ANC.

However, about the McBride case, the academic says that “this latest misunderstanding, of a South African covert operation of putting secret agents with devices, with drones, on a mission that no one quite understands, without informing colleagues in Mozambique, is just another episode in the relationship that was never easy”.

Also according to Thomashausen, this situation has to do with the dominance of the South African economy in the economy of southern Mozambique, in the tourism and consumption sectors, for example. “And there have been very tragic cases of xenophobia, in which Mozambican workers were killed,” he recalls.

And in an apparent attempt to extricate himself from the “tight spot”, Pretoria suspended Robert McBride from office. In the case of the spies arrested at the beginning of the year, the person in charge of the international operations of the South African secret services will have acted outside of an operational protocol between the two countries, which establishes that the Mozambican authorities be notified of the activities of the secret agents from South Africa.

For Araújo, the incident shows that there is no understanding between Pretoria and several SADC members about the origins of the conflict in Cabo Delgado, about the involvement of foreign forces, strategy and methods of combating terrorism.

“The arrest was surprising because we thought that among friendly countries, which we thought, this type of situation would not be normal, South Africa would not send spies without the knowledge of Mozambique and also, even if Mozambique had detected a South African cell, it would trigger the appropriate mechanisms for dismantling this cell and sending it to the country of origin without going through arrest,” says the Mozambican analyst.

However, continues Manuel de Araújo, “when the arrest is carried out, it shows that the diplomatic, military and security channels are somehow clogged up and the only way there was to show discontent was detention, until the owners commented on the elements”.

The alleged espionage incidents put Pretoria in an embarrassing situation. But it is necessary to remember that South Africa is one of the greatest African potentials and Mozambique depends a lot on its neighbour economically. Could incidents affect relationships?

Manuel de Araújo says that South Africa may not show “muscle” in relation to this action, “but certainly the attitude is not well regarded neither in the security sector nor in the diplomatic sector in Pretoria and beyond”.

“It should be noted that the speeches of the ministers of Defence and of Foreign Affairs [of South Africa] have been at a pitch contrary to Mozambique’s wishes. The [South African] defence minister recently stated, for example, that she found it strange that Mozambique had not announced about the presence of Rwandan forces before the arrival of the SADC contingent. This public pronouncement is made on behalf of South Africa”, highlights Araújo.

And given the negative evolution of relations, academic Thomashausen does not augur improvements among neighbours: “The adventure in which the new head of foreign affairs of the SSA [State Security Agency] has undertaken to send agents to Mozambique possibly for acts of violence or sabotage to possibly weaken the insurgents evidently it will not improve the understanding of the two countries,” he concludes. - DW