fOftEST COMMISSIONS
Stapleford with branches at NYA-
NGANI - ORANGE GROVE - LION
GROVE and LION HILLS.
Silverstream wiih branches . at
GWENZI - VATONDO - CHIPINGA -
MILSETTER - INYANGA and NYA-
MAROPA.
Cheba  at   PENHALONGA.
In all these companies, the workers
are Mozambicans, sold by the Portuguese
to the British masters.
The Great Kariba Dam in Central
Africa was built with the use of cheap
Mozambican labour. Many Mozambicans lost their lives in that gorge and
the Portugnese received millions of Sterling Pounds in compensation for the lost
African lives, and not one shilling for
the families remaining in their sorrow.
Who dies in the South African
Mines ?
After various conventions between
South Africa and the colonial Government of Portugal, over the supply of
cheap labour, it was finally agreed and
guaranteed that this supply should be
paid for by the percentage tax for the
Transvaal transit goods through the Lourenco Marques port. It is through this that
the convention of 1928 allowed agents
of the mining companies the Witwaters-
rand Native Labour Association (W.N.
LA.), to recruit up to 800,000 Africans
annually, and established that 47-5 per
cent of the sea traffic to and from the
Transvaal would pass through the port
of Lourenco Marques.
Needless to mention, that the business is highly profitable for the colonial
Government of Portugal while in Mozambique, but bare misery,  suffering  and
exploitation to the indigenous African
people in their own country. It does not
only make the port of Lourenco Marques
one of the best ports in the world, but
the colonial Government accumulates
taxes and wealth from each worker who
in return brings his salary to spend in
Mozambique, in that perpetual circle of
exploitation where the money flows out
and returns to the payer. Hence, against these advantages on the part of the
Portuguese, there are disadvantages on
the part of the Africans. The mortality
of mine workers is terrible and sometimes reaches the average of 67.6 per cent
per 1000. in 1960, Mozambique witnessed
days of mourning, due to the great disaster in the Coal Brook Mine in South
Africa, in which 200 Mozambicans died.
For the imperialist Government, the news
of the disaster came as a lottery winning
ticket, because the families of the victims
were indemnified by the South African
Chamber of Mines, the money of which
ended in the pockets of the Portuguese
colonial Government.
As you Sir, Mr. Chairman, will see,
until 1960 the Mozambican people were
always suffering, but reacting intermittently against the barbaric so-called Public Security Police. When the independence of the Congo ( Leopoldville ) was
proclaimed - followed by dramatic events, the Portuguese Gestapo-PIDE (Poli-
cia Internacionale de Defesa do Estado)
started a new wave of terror and horror.
This was followed by a wave of imprisonment. Old men, women and the
young people were crowded into gaols,
and until this day some are still within
the PIDE s dark rooms and torture chambers. Innocent people are committed
without trial, families without bread and
help, all fight desparately for their free,
dom. Some people like Dr. Agostino
Ilunga, Tomas Nhatumba, Deniz Mondlane
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