November 1990 — The ruling Frelimo party amends the constitution to allow a multiparty political system, individual rights and freedoms and a free-market economy.
August 1991 — A press law is enacted, entrenching the constitutional principles of freedom of expression and information, journalistic independence and an impartial, objective public media. A Supreme Council for Mass Communications is created to monitor the implementation of the law's provisions.
October 1992 — Joaquim Chissano, president of Mozambique since 1986, and anti-government resistance group Renamo sign a peace accord, ending a 16-year civil war.
June 1994 — National broadcaster Radio Mozambique becomes financially and administratively autonomous from the government.
October 1994 — Mozambique holds its first multiparty elections for president and the National Assembly, its new Parliament.
December 1994 — President Chissano abolishes the Ministry of Information, marking a major step towards easing government control over the media. U.N. peacekeepers begin their withdrawal from Mozambique, which is completed by early 1995.
June 1996 — The newspaper Domingo reports that Deputy Attorney General Agostinho Abdul released three arms traffickers in 1993 in exchange for about 40,000 meticais (US$1,500).
May 1997 — Renamo engages in a series of anti-government demonstrations around the country. Demonstrations in the city of Beira end with riot police using tear gas and arresting 31 protesters for demonstrating without a permit. In Chimoio, police disperse a crowd of 50 before demonstrations start, arresting two and injuring six.
May 1998 — The head of Chokwe prison is arrested and charged with accepting a bribe in exchange for releasing four alleged arms dealers.
June 1998 — Mozambique holds its first local elections, which attract only a 15 percent turnout and are boycotted by the main opposition party Renamo, which alleges fraud by the Frelimo party. The boycott leads to Frelimo winning complete control of the new municipal authorities.
April 1999 — The Voter Registration Law is amended to allow for new registration of the country's eligible voters. Voter rolls had not been updated since 1997 even though the original law required annual updates.
October 1999 — After four years of effort, proposed constitutional amendments limiting the powers of the presidency die in Parliament. Members of Renamo, which had initially advocated reforms after the 1994 elections, refuse to cast votes and the amendments fail to garner the two-thirds majority required for passage.
December 1999 — The country holds its second multiparty general elections, the first administered by Mozambican officials rather than the United Nations.
September 2000 — Ethics Mozambique, a new anti-corruption NGO, issues a study showing that a large percentage of the public has little confidence in the government's ability or desire to combat corruption. The same month, the Norwegian government initiates an investigation into Norwegian aid to Mozambique. An estimated 54 million meticais (US$2 million) in Norwegian aid was allegedly misappropriated in 1995, and various international donor organizations have since called for Mozambique to improve its policies and procedures for handling foreign aid.
October 2000 — A new anti-corruption unit is established to combat corruption in the port customs service.
November 2000 — More than 40 people are killed during nationwide protests by Renamo supporters against the 1999 elections. Later in the month, 82 prison inmates - many of them Renamo supporters detained after the protests - die in prison from what preliminary investigations attribute to suffocation caused by overcrowding. Two senior police officials are suspended in connection with the prison deaths.
November 2000 — Investigative reporter Carlos Cardoso, one of the country's leading journalists, is gunned down in the capital city of Maputo. Cardoso was investigating a major fraud scandal involving the disappearance of 378 million meticais (US$14 million) from the Commercial Bank of Mozambique shortly before it was privatized in 1996. Six men are charged with his murder in May 2001: a prominent businessman and a former manager of the bank branch from which the money disappeared are charged with hiring the other four to carry out the killing.
December 2000 — President Chissano and Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama hold their first meeting since the disputed 1999 elections. Renamo officially recognizes the ruling Frelimo government, but both parties meet sporadically over the next few months to resolve lingering political tensions.
April 2001 — The National Assembly amends the Law on Demonstrations. The new law eases restrictions on the times during which demonstrations are allowed, rescinds the prohibition on demonstrations likely to offend the honor of government officials, restricts local authorities' power to disrupt demonstrations, and expedites the demonstration approval process. The new law also prohibits the use of excessive force by police to control demonstrations.
August 2001 — Antonio Siba-Siba Macuacua, head of the debt-ridden Austral Bank, is murdered by unidentified assailants. At the time of his murder, he was investigating the bank's outstanding loans, many of them allegedly to politicians.
December 2001 — President Chissano fires two police chiefs amid growing concern over the country's escalating violent crime rate. The move occurs days after Chissano decries the public's eroding faith in the police and courts in a state of the nation address and the Attorney General announces the establishment of a special anti-corruption unit. He says the unit will first focus on corruption in the judiciary.
March 2002 — In his annual report to Parliament, Attorney General Joaquim Madeira admits that the Mozambican legal system is plagued by incompetence and corruption. He cites examples of police tampering with evidence, judges and lawyers accepting bribes and prison officials abetting inmate escapes.
September 2002 — Anibal Antonio dos Santos Junior, aka Anibalzinho, one of six men accused of participating in the murder of journalist Carlos Cardoso in November 2000, escapes from prison. Madeira sets up a commission to look into the escape, which was allegedly aided by prison officials.
November 2002 — The defendants standing trial for the murder of journalist Carlos Cardoso testify that President Chissano's eldest son, Nhympine Chissano, paid them about 1 million meticais (US$40,000) to kill Cardoso. Anibalzinho, being tried in absentia after a prison escape, is thought to have evidence that could conclusively link the president's son to the crime. Anibalzinho is recaptured in South Africa on Jan. 30, 2003, after the closing time for presenting evidence and one day before the judge announces his verdict. The six men are convicted and sentenced to long prison terms. Other evidence presented at the trial — broadcast live on national radio and television — reveals an international network of drug dealing, money laundering and customs fraud by people linked to the top echelons of the Frelimo party. After the trial, a separate file is opened to evaluate whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute Nhympine Chissano.
October 2003 — Parliament unanimously passes an anti-corruption bill that makes office holders or employees of government-owned or operated companies who abuse their positions subject to imprisonment. The bill also increases protection for whistleblowers, imposes new obligations on auditors to report corruption, and requires officials to file a list of their assets every year.
December 2004 — Frelimo party candidate Armando Guebuza defeats Renamo challenger Afonso Dhlakhama in the race to succeed President Joaquim Chissano. Although international monitors acknowledge some election irregularities, Guebuza's victory is affirmed by the Constitutional Council in January.
March 2005 — Constitutional amendments passed by the National Assembly in 2004 come into force, creating an independent ombudsman to investigate allegations of abuses by state officials.
August 2005 — The attorney general announces the establishment of the Central Office for the Combat of Corruption (GCCC). The GCCC is part of the Public Prosecutors Office, subordinate to the Attorney General.
August 2005 — Due to alleged corruption and mismanagement, the Labor minister dismisses the director general of the National Social Security Institute (INSS) and dismisses or reassigns more than a dozen other senior INSS officials. INSS Board Chairman Aguiar Mazula resigns in October.
January 2006 — At his retrial, Anibalzinho is convicted of the murder of Carlos Cardoso.
June 2006 — The Mozambican Public Prosecutor's Office charges Nhympine Chissano with the Cardoso murder. The indictment accuses Chissano of ordering the hit on Cardoso and committing other unspecified "economic crimes."
Feb. 16, 2007 — A Mozambican court rejects the appeals of four hired killers and the two bankers who hired them to assassinate leading journalist Carlos Cordoso in 2000.
August 2007 — Mozambican judges refuse to try corruption cases using the excuse that GCCC has no power to prosecute such cases. It is generally assumed that GCCC has full power to prosecute the cases it investigates. The whole point of Parliament setting up the GCCC was to bring cases of corruption to trial.
The case involves corruption charges against a director of the government's Fisheries Promotion Fund (FFP). When the case comes before Maputo City Court, a judge named Cinco Reis suspends the trial, claiming GCCC has no powers to prosecute. The judge also claims that diverting state funds and falsifying documents does not fall under the legal definition of corruption.
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