In the last years before his murder on 22 November 2000 he deliberately set out to develop an understanding of the inner workings of financial institutions. Deductive logic told him that the modest size of the legal economy could not account for the country’s dramatic banking and property development boom. High-level corruption was taking place. Two brothers from a prominent banking family, one of their business partners, and three gunmen hired by them were found guilty of his murder on January 31 this year.
From the third day onwards during November last year, until the end of January, the trial of the six men was broadcast live on state television and radio every day, right up to the final verdict, despite serious objections by the public prosecutor. Presiding Judge Augusto Paulino refused to impose a ban saying that attempts to do so were unrealistic. His only ruling was to request the media for safety reasons not to show the faces of witnesses (rather than the accused).
Sex workers’ clinic
By all accounts, the trial dominated public life in Mozambique with citizens on every street corner, in every office and in every house, glued to their television or radio sets. The CPU News reported in its February edition that "one aid agency official recalls walking into a sex workers’ clinic to find the TV in the waiting room, normally pumping out MTV or another music channel, showing the trial minute by minute instead". Saturation coverage in both the public and private press also took place.
This turn of events is dramatic. Two years ago no one seriously believed that Cardoso’s assassins would even be found, particularly when the police investigation was seriously bungled during the early stages.
Serious irregularities also obstructed the case, such as attempts to intimidate the judge and the prosecuting attorney, difficulties in obtaining the autopsy report and the fraudulent introduction of mobile phones into the prison for the use of the accused who were seeking to obstruct the work of the investigators. And finally the disappearance from prison of the main assassin shortly before the trial (he was eventually re-arrested in South Africa days after being found guilty in absentia by the court).
The Attorney-General of Mozambique, Joaquim Madeira, has said in a recent report to Parliament that when all six men were detained "we understood that this was not a simple murder motivated by personal revenge or the like, but a real case of organised crime involving professional hitmen, a great deal of money and corruption".
So-called leaked copy
However, the President of the Supreme Court of Mozambique, Mario Mangaze, criticised some sections of the media for its coverage of the case in a speech on March 3, at the opening of the judicial year. He said while there were journalists who wrote with "rigour, objectivity and a constructive spirit, even when they make harsh criticisms", there were also cases that eroded the confidence of the public and other institutions in the media.
For instance, the weekly paper "Zambeze" published a so-called leaked copy of the verdict the day before it was delivered. But what it published bore little similarity to what was read out in court the following day, when the six murderers were sentenced to long prison terms.
Mangaze warned that "when abuses of the press reach a certain level, even when committed by a minority, they may lead in the mid or long term, to the loss or limitation of the rights and freedoms of journalists".
He continued: "In certain quarters corporatist movements have arisen against press abuses. When movements like this are set up and persist, they may endanger fundamental freedoms that cost a great deal to attain - the freedom of the press and individual rights". Some in Mozambique, notably opposition political parties, have misconstrued his statements as an attack on press freedom.
Chissano junior
The impact of the murder of Carlos Cardoso on Mozambican society is destined to continue for some time. Allegations made in the trial by some of the accused and other witnesses implicating Nyimpine Chissano, the oldest son of Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, are under investigation.
They claim that Chissano junior paid for the murder. Since the murder of Cardoso, Mozambican journalists have told various fact-finding missions, including this author, that they are too afraid to report on the subject of high-level corruption.
Only time and a continued determination on the part of the Mozambican government and its law enforcement agencies to effectively combat organised crime will restore their confidence.
In the meantime, it has taken the death of Carlos Cardoso to break new ground in the area of public access to information in Mozambique in view of the unprecedented live public media coverage of his trial.
The government has been forced to acknowledge and focus on high-level corruption in the country. Internationally, this is also one of the very few cases in the world where the murderers of journalists have not escaped with "impunity" – a major grievance of all media freedom organisations in the world.
Carlos has remained a revolutionary – even from the other side of the grave. It will remain the duty of journalists in Mozambique to maintain his legacy by being brave enough to continue exposing corruption in high places with professional integrity.
Jeanette Minnie is an advisor to NiZA on the issue of freedom of expression. She has been a director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), South Africa.
jcmin@iafrica.com
