The Entente de l’Espoir, consisting of the three leaders, Xavier Luc Duval, Nando Bodha and Paul Berenger, are proceeding with a new formula. They present themselves with 4 members from each party to comment on current events. Friday’s conference was a series of denunciation and questioning of the questionable methods of the MSM and Prime Minister, Pravind Jugnauth. On the price situation, Paul Bérenger described the Finance Minister’s approach as “adding insult to injury”.
The drug situation is serious
Xavier Luc Duval went straight to the point: “Drugs have penetrated every constituency in Mauritius and this is much worse than before, according to the PMO report published in January 2021, which reports on 2019. On page 10, it states that the drug related offences have increased by 40% as compared to 2015. I had asked the PM a PNQ on June 17 about the 120 cases of large drug seizures since 2017, where he remained evasive in his answer. There are seizures, arrests, bails but no convictions and no prosecutions”. Xavier Duval also made it clear that these files remain in the drawers of the police and raised a question about the drugs seized. He mentioned the 4 biggest cases, “the Rs 1.8 billion in heroin in 2017, 110 kg of heroin in a speed boat in 2018 worth Rs 1.5 million, 95 kg of cocaine worth Rs 1.4 billion in a backhoe and 243 kg of cocaine and 23 kg of hashish found in an abandoned land at Pointe aux Canonniers”. He drew attention to the fact that the arrests were mainly of consumers and not of traffickers.
Regarding Kenny Dhunnoo, accused of physically abusing a nurse at the Wellkin Clinic in Moka on 29 July, the Blue Leader refused to call him by his honorable title. He strongly condemned this act among others of Kenny Dhunnoo’s “antics” and said “Kenny Dhunoo is unworthy of wearing the title of honorable” and thus, demanded his resignation. He asked Welkin and C-Care staff to show solidarity with the Indian employee and not to fear reprisals or threats of deportation.
On the “exaggerated price of gasoline, the ratio of minimum wage to gasoline price, we are the highest in the world“. He spoke of the population’s refusal of “outdated” vaccines. He asked the Finance Minister to remove the tax of Rs 2. “This margin is huge. Padayachy must take responsibility. The world price is going down. The pump price is still twice the purchase price. There are about Rs 30 billion in his own ministry in his special funds.
RM talks about appointments and “Omerta in the kitchen”
Xavier Duval made it clear that MSM congresses are full of “crudeness and vulgarity”. This part was echoed by Nando Bodha, Leader of the Rassemblement Mauricien party, who condemned Prime Minister, Pravind Jugnauth. “To what extent Pravind Jugnauth will go in his methods to defend his political survival?” He said that instead of setting an example, he speaks vulgarly of the Opposition, attacks the press and publicly denounces some journalists and forces under threat of dismissal, civil servants and employees of parastatals to attend the congresses. He also commented on the appointment of Ashit Gungah to the Port and Prakash Munthoora to the CWA which he attributed to a political appointment to carry out orders from the kitchen. He also returned to “the inaction against the mischief by the MSM members”. He returned to the “Omerta in the kitchen” in reference to those public questions aimed at Sherry Singh and his company, I Richmont Capital Ltd. “It is a practice of Pravind Jugnauth to strongly criticize the person who is no longer part of the Kitchen system by leading to investigations against the individual or else public denunciations.”
Nando Bodha explained, “The first phase of the Metro Express is worth Rs 18.8 billion, half of which is a grant from India. So, it cost Rs 9 billion for 22 km or rather, Rs 450 million per km”. But he also dwelt on Phase 2 of the Metro Express, from Rose Hill to Ebene to Reduit to Cote d’Or at a cost of 13 billion, or 1.3 billion per km. “This is almost three times the price of the metro. What is scandalous is that Cote d’Or does not have so many passengers, except during an event, it is a waste. Worse, if a person from Cote d’Or takes a bus to Port Louis via the motorway, it will arrive before the metro!” He pointed out that this part is not a priority and that the country is already in debt to the tune of Rs 500 billion.
MMM: A Black-Out to come
Paul Bérenger spoke of the tactics of ‘Money Politics’, the “execrable level of discourse by the PM and his parliamentarians who are a disgrace to the Parliament” but above all, the ‘misery’ that the MSM is doing to the Opposition, evoking the non-availability of a hall for a congress. The Leader of the Mauves announced the congress on Friday 2 September in constituencies 15 and 16 in Quinze Cantons.
On the subject of the CEB, Paul Bérenger said the country is heading for a ‘Black-Out’. He drew attention to Terragen which produces 60 MW through renewable energy “but that is not enough for us. Terragen will leave us with a shortfall of 60 MW of the 570 MW we produce.” He drew attention to the fact that production is still done with old, irreparable machines. He returned to the proposed possibilities “to counter this danger zone we are entering” such as Liquified Gas, Floating Barge and Heavy Oil. “This is going to take too long and too expensive. The discussions are around increasing CEB tariffs for consumers. We are on a tightrope and tariff increases are looming. The population will pay for the incompetence of the government.
He ended on the President of Comoros Ahmed Abdallah Mohammed Sambi who presided from 2006 to 2011. “He has been under house arrest for four years, since 2018, without trial or judgement. Even the law of Comoros does not allow such house arrest. Even the decision of an investigating judge to allow him to go for treatment was refused. I make a special appeal to President Azali Asoumani to stop this treatment of former President Sambi. He called that like Mauritius, Comoros is also a member of SADC, a member of the African Union and the Indian Ocean Commission, there to defend democracy.
Conclusion in favour of humans rights
At the end of the press conference, Xavier Luc Duval, responding to the press, said that it is “unacceptable to hold a demonstration in front of a person’s place of residence. It is dangerous for social peace. Paul Bérenger added that at the time “I took a stand when the police went to arrest him at his home while he was in his pyjamas and in front of his children. I went down to the Line Barracks personally. But it is sad to see that Pravind Jugnauth is doing worse than what others have done worse. The leaders of the Entente de l’Espoir also said that new blood is needed as well as a good programme for the future of the country. The case of Me Akil Bissessur was also among the methods they deplored.
