Communication 434/12: Filimao Pedro Tivane (represented by Dr. Simeao Cuamba) v.
Mozambique
Summary of the Complaint
1. The Complaint is submitted against the Republic of Mozambique 1 (the Respondent
State or the State) by Dr. Simeao Cuamba (the Complainant) on behalf of Filimao
Pedro Tivane (the Victim).
2. The Complainant submits that on 22 December 1975 the Victim bought a house in
the city of Maputo from Maria Alves Morreira Cravo for one million, five hundred
thousand (1,500,000) escudos, and the transaction was registered with the Deeds
Office in Lourenço Marques, currently Maputo. The Complainant asserts that the
sum was paid promptly upon signing of the agreement of sale, and following this
the seller handed the house over to the Victim, who began living in it, thereby
acquiring full ownership.
3. The Complainant avers that on 14 January 1976 a senior official of the party-led State
Committee, accompanied by police agents, arrested the Victim without a warrant
and forcibly took him to the “Sacuzo Concentration Camp in Sofala Province and
subsequently to the Intoculo Concentration Camp in Nampula Province, (these
camps are commonly known as re-education centres),”2 where he remained in
detention until 03 August 1988. The Complainant submits that at the time of the
Victim’s arrest, the Respondent State took possession of the Victim’s house and
leased it to the Embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR).
4. The Complainant submits that the Victim was still the owner of the house when the
State took possession of it, given that Decree-Law no. 5/76 on the nationalization of
income generating buildings was approved and came into force on 05 February
1976; that is twenty one (21) days after the expropriation of the Victim’s house. The
Complainant notes that Article 12 of Decree-Law no. 5/76 stipulated that the State
enjoyed the right of preference in the buying and selling of privately owned
buildings.
5. The Complainant further submits that, following his release, the Victim applied to
buy the same house, and was granted permission by the State on 07 August 1989.
However, the Complainant submits that as result of pressure exerted by the Victim
on the aforementioned Embassy to vacate the house and return it to him, in 1992 the
State reversed its decision and registered the house as its own property.
6. The Complainant submits that, in 2007, the Victim filed a civil suit against the State
in the Judicial Tribunal of the City of Maputo in Case no. 127/07, asking the Court to
declare the registration of the house in the name of the State null and void. The
Complainant further submits that on 08 July 2008, the Court ruled in favour of the
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2
Mozambique ratified the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights 22 February 1989
Complaint, paragraph 3
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