Published on 09/06/2025
Deputy chairperson of the Mozambican Association of Judges (AMJ), Jafete Fremo, has confirmed that three judges were expelled, over the last five years, from the judicial system in the Northern Province of Nampula for corruption.
According to Fremo, who was speaking on the sidelines of the ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the AMJ, one judge was dismissed from Nampula City Court and two from Nacala District Court.
“From January to date, three judges were expelled. These judges were punished for poor application of the law and for being involved in acts of corruption”, he said.
Fremo believes that dismissal of these judges must be seen “as a positive act, as it takes place in a sector that least tolerates professional deviation.”
“Nampula is on the list of provinces with the most cases of sanctioning and dismissal of magistrates this year”, he added.
According to a report in the independent Nampula electronic paper “Wamphula Fax”, the Higher Council of the Judicial Magistrature (CSMJ), which is the regulatory body for judges, decided in April to expel Noe Jose Zimpinga, from the Nacala district court, and to dismiss Serguei Costa, from the Nampula provincial court, for illicit behaviour that seriously damaged citizens and institutions.
Both judges were accused of extortion and corruption. The CSMJ believed they were fully aware of their actions, which could not be dismissed as resulting from inexperience or negligence.
Zimpinga had been involved in the pigeon pea scandal in 2023-2024. He had ordered the seizure of goods valued at 70 million dollars and ordered their sale to cover a supposed debt of three million meticais – even after the Public Prosecutor’s Office had ordered the case to be shelved. This was an intervention in a dispute between two companies involved in the export of pigeon peas to India. Zimpinga took the side of the Royal Group, against its competitor, ETG Ltd,
The CSMJ accused Zimpinga of violating the duties of “honesty, seriousness, impartiality and dignity”, and so it decided to expel him entirely from the judicial profession.
As for Costa, he illegally ordered the detention of a woman, but four days later ordered her release. In a second case, he sentenced a 12-year-old child of Chinese nationality, to a year’s imprisonment, along with three Chinese adults, without any of them being heard in court. Despite this flagrant illegality, he not only rejected appeals by the defence lawyers, but dismissed them as “time wasting manoeuvres”.
