- An impossible birth certificate, signed without witnesses, without grandparents, and without evidence, has allowed the son-in-law of ambassador Osvalda Joana to become a Mozambican citizen. The investigation by MOZTIMES shows how a vulnerable document reveals profound shortcomings in the civil registration system.
By Borges Nhamirre
Maputo (MOZTIMES) – In the middle of an old and uniform archive, is a single certificate: a late, solitary and incomplete registration, signed with a facility that the Law does not allow. This is the story of the document that opened the doors of Mozambican nationality to Eduardo Mbala, the son-in-law of one of the most influential figures in the Mozambican judiciary and in the diplomatic service.
His full name is Eduardo Nguyindu Romão Mbala. He was born on 15 April 1979, in Marracuene district, Maputo province, and is the bearer of Identity Card number 110502737931S. Hence, he is a Mozambican citizen on the principle of territoriality, since he was born inside Mozambique. At least, this is the official information contained in the civil registry, but it could all be false, resulting from a birth certificate based on false information. If this is confirmed, this case could be a major scandal, involving a high ranking judge who is also a diplomat at the top of her career.
Eduardo Nguyindu Romão Mbala, or simply Nguindo, as he is known among close friends, is the son-in-law of Dr Osvalda Joana, a judge who reached the top of the judicial magistracy as a judge on the Supreme Court (2012–2019). Since 2019, Osvalda Joana has been the Mozambican ambassador to Angola. Since 2022, she has also been ambassador to São Tomé and Príncipe, but resident in Luanda.
The MOZTIMES investigation established that Eduardo Nguyindu Romão Mbala acquired Mozambican nationality in an apparently fraudulent manner, under the influence of his mother-in-law, the judge and diplomat, Osvalda Joana.
In 2008, Eduardo Nguyindu Romão Mbala married Áquila Ismênia de Castro Macandja, and the couple had a daughter. Áquila is the daughter of the judge Osvalda Joana.
Eduardo Mbala was born in Angola and holds Angolan nationality. He confirmed this in a telephone interview with MOZTIMES, on Tuesday. Under the Mozambican nationality law, since he is married to a Mozambican citizen, Eduardo Mbala could have acquired Mozambican citizenship five years after the marriage. However, he opted for a quicker, but fraudulent method.
Mbala opted to provide false information in order to obtain a birth certificate as a citizen born in Mozambique to Mozambican parents. During the investigation, it was possible to request and obtain a copy of Eduardo Mbala’s birth certificate at the Marracuene civil registry office. The document looks authentic, but the information it contains is false.
Birth certificate number 11035 contains the registration of Eduardo Mbala, recorded on 20 December 2007, in book number 37, page 93. The only person making the declaration was Mbala himself, before the registrar Fernando Issaia Neves, who signed the certificate.
When he was registered, Eduardo Mbala was 38 years, eight months and five days old. Even so, the registrar agreed to register him without witnesses who could confirm that he is indeed a citizen born in Mozambique. In the birth certificate extracted from the registration book at the Marracuene Civil Registry Office, there are no names of any witnesses.
According to sources close to the case, the registration was undertaken by people instructed by judge Osvalda Joana who, by using her influence, managed to avoid the legal requirement for the presentation of witnesses when registering adults.
A Supreme Court protocol official, Cassawa Capece, dealt with the correspondence for the registration of Eduardo Mbala retroactively. That is, the registration was recorded in 2013, but dated 20 December 2007.
After the registration, Eduardo Mbala dealt with his Mozambican identity card on 3 January 2013 and gave as his residential address House number 58, in Rua José Sidumo, Polana Cimento neighbourhood, in Maputo City. This is a protocol residence of the Court Treasury where judge Osvalda Joana and her family used to live, at the time of these facts.
Elements indicating that the registration is a forgery
Eduardo Mbala’s registration certificate contains several indications leading to suspicion that the information given at the time of registration was false. In addition to registering when he was 38 years old, Mbala did not give the names of his grandparents. When a birth is registered in Mozambique, in general, in addition to the parentage of the person registered, the names of the paternal and maternal grandparents should be given. In Eduardo Mbala’s birth certificate, the lines reserved for registering the names of the four grandparents have been struck out, a sign that no information was provided at the moment of registration.
As for his parents, Eduardo Mbala declared that he is the son of Manuel Eduardo Mbala and of Maria Rita Macandza, but he did not state the country of birth of his parents. He merely declared that they were both living in Habel Jafaz neighbourhood, in Marracuene. It is strange that he did not indicate the country of birth of his parents because, in general, to be a Mozambican citizen, it is not enough to be born in Mozambique. It is necessary that at least one of the parents should be a Mozambican citizen, although there are exceptions.
Furthermore, the surname of the supposed mother of Eduardo Mbala — Maria Rita Macandza — is similar to the surname of his wife, Áquila Ismênia de Castro Macandja. Áquila bears the surname of her father, Gaspar Macandja, the husband of judge Osvalda Joana.
Information obtained during the investigation shows that, while the name of the father of Eduardo Mbala (Manuel Eduardo Mbala), declared in the act of registration, is correct, in the name of the mother, the surname Macandza, common in Mozambique, has been added. However, the real surname of Eduardo Mbala’s mother is different, but we have not yet been able to establish what it is.
If the relevant authorities confirm that information was falsified during the registration of Eduardo Mbala’s birth, then he may have committed the crime of forging documents and could be brought before a court.
Currently Eduardo Mbala is living in South Africa and visits Mozambique regularly.
The falsification of Mozambican identity documents is a generalised problem which involves public servants who facilitate the issuing of forged documents through schemes of corruption. In her 2022 report to the Mozambican parliament, the then Attorney-General, Beatriz Buchili, told the deputies that “violation of our borders by foreign citizens, some of them bearing passports and even identity cards issued by the national immigration and civil identification services, using corrupt schemes, contributes to organised crime, and puts the sovereignty of our state at risk”.
In this case, without ignoring the possibility of corruption, it is suspected that there was also trafficking in influence on the part of Eduardo Mbala’s mother-in-law.
Asked for her reaction, ambassador Osvalda Joana did not answer three phone calls made during normal working hours. Nor did she reply to a WhatsApp message sent to her phone number.
Eduardo Mbala declared that he is an Angolan citizen and denied that he has registered his birth in Moçambique. “I wasn’t born in Mozambique. I’m an Angolan”, said Mbala. When asked if he is aware that he also has Mozambican civil identification documents, he did not answer and then hung up the phone.
Contacted by phone, Cassawa Capece confirmed that he was an assistant to Judge Osvalda Joana and that, in about 2013, he handled correspondence concerning the civil registration of Eduardo Mbala, the son-in-law of Dr Osvalda. However, when asked whether he knew that Eduardo Mbala was an Angolan citizen, he merely said he was busy at a ceremony and could not speak any further just then. (BN)
