Struck by a bullet, a guy collapses to the ground. His phone continues to tape-record as the video footage goes black.
Unbeknownst to the shooter, the scene is being transmitted live on the Facebook account of the young blog writer he has actually simply struck: Albino Sibia, much better referred to as Mano Shottas. His last minutes continue to haunt a routine accustomed to impunity
Forbidden Stories recuperated a two-minute, 24-second clip from the video shot on the day of his death, 12 December 2024.
In it, Shottas catches a tense standoff in between protesters and police in Ressano Garcia, a village in southern Mozambique surrounding South Africa. Officers are revealed placed on the roadway in front of him, as he discusses the clouds of tear gas approaching what he states is a home with kids inside. Shooting sounds out around him.
Over the previous 18 months, Shottas had actually kept the locals of his town notified through Facebook. He went far for himself through his livestreams, covering demonstrations, regional news and even water contamination in the area from his phone. This caused his arrest in January 2024, according to a source near to Shottas.
“They took him to jail, to a secret location, where they charged us 50,000 to get him out,” the source stated. That’s the equivalent of about R13,000, or numerous months’ income in Mozambique.
A dump truck being covered with a tarpaulin at the border in between South Africa and Mozambique (left)and a photo of Mano Shottas published on his Facebook page(right).
Less than a minute after being injured, Shottas discovered the strength to turn the cam towards himself.
“I’ve been shot. I’ve been shot, and they keep shooting,” he stated in a flat voice. With his face pushed versus the asphalt, the 30-year-old daddy had actually simply transmitted his last words. His death was validated a couple of hours later on.
By evaluating open-source info and videos shot at the demonstration websiteForbidden Stories showed the participation of police in Shottas’ death. The examination required taking a trip to the South African border town of Komatipoort to confirm whether soil contamination along the Komati River continued– continuing the work that cost Shottas his life.
South Africa’s chromium trade path
As Shottas taped his last video, Mozambique remained in the middle of social discontent following the October 2024 basic elections, which were spoiled by extensive scams and objected to by the opposition.
Police reacted with a crackdown that left more than 300 individuals dead.
Demonstrators put tires on a burning barrier throughout a post-election demonstration in Maputo, Mozambique, on 6 December 2024.(Photo: Luisa Nhantumbo/ EPA-EFE)
The presentation Shottas covered that day was various. Protesters had actually obstructed the roadway upon finding out that trucks filled with chromite ore were as soon as again driving through Ressano Garcia. It’s a sight the residents are all too knowledgeable about.
Every day, more than 1,000 trucks bring chromium and other minerals from neighbouring South Africa block the town’s roadways on their method to the Port of Maputo on the Indian Ocean coast, less than 100km away, according to figures offered by a South African professional.
The deliveries of chromite ore presumably contaminate the Komati River, which streams through the border.
In reporting on the demonstration, Shottas handled an incredibly effective market. The trucks that crowd the Lebombo border crossing are just the most noticeable part of global trade circulations. About 1,000 dump trucks a day discharge chromium, coal or magnetite from South Africa onto ships docked at the port in Mozambique’s capital.
This technique of roadway transportation is thought about more dependable than rail freight, and even exporting metals by means of South African ports. It’s a windfall for among the world’s poorest nations.
“Around 75% to 80% of the world’s chrome ore in South Africa,” stated Luke Nickels, an expert with the Signal Group.
“If we return to 2022, is sort of the origin swimming pool for around 57% to 60% of all the chrome ore exports that we track. Practically 85% of those exports enter into China.”
Secret to a sector valued at more than EUR3-billion, the Maputo Corridor is a particularly dangerous subject to cover. Chromite is a tactical basic material: When processed into ferrochrome, it is utilized to produce stainless-steel, an important resource for the worldwide market.
A journey on the roadway in between South Africa and Mozambique rapidly exposes the issue’s magnitude. The border separating the 2 nations runs along the large Kruger National Park, where travelers from all over the world begun safaris looking for lions, elephants and giraffes.
Trucks bring ore end up being a progressively regular sight as Komatipoort draws nearer, ultimately forming a constant line a number of hundred metres long at the entryway to the border town. Black and gray spots increase along the roadway, formed by deposits of coal and chromium ore. The chromium is recognisable by its shimmer, changing some roadside verges into carpets of shine. The wind sweeps up the ore and spreads it near the surrounding Komati River.
Trucks line up at the Lebombo Border Control in Komatipoort to go into Mozambique on 14 July 2023.(Photo: Leon Sadaki/ Bloomberg through Getty Images)
These deposits take place when the trucks return from Mozambique empty. They should initially pass back through the border with the tarpaulins eliminated from their freight beds for assessment. Once they’re throughout, on their method to their South African logistics base, many stop along the roadside and put the tarpaulins back in location to save money on fuel.
This is the task of boys who sit and wait on them behind the guardrails. When a dump truck stops, they go up the side immediately and reattach the tarpaulins for the modest amount of R10. It is normally throughout this procedure that the containers topple, spilling mineral powders onto the ground.
Left unsettled
South African authorities have actually been not able to fix the issue, regardless of having actually looked out to it. “We essentially simply got a verification letter that they did get,” stated Lambert de Klerk, head of ecological affairs for the NGO AfriForum.
The letter, evaluated by Forbidden Stories, was sent out in February 2024 to the ecological ministry and the Department of Mineral Resources in Pretoria. It requires an “immediate examination into and enforcement of ecological legislation relating to the unlawful disposing of minerals in the Komatipoort location”, pointing out in specific “a considerable risk to the neighborhood’s health, farming heartland and the total ecological health and wellbeing”.
As early as 2023, a citizen of Komatipoort likewise tried to alert ecological authorities to the problem. She declares to have actually offered water and soil analyses to support her issues, along with images of “dead fish, dead plants, dead animals”, which she credits to contamination triggered by ore disposes near the border. To no get. “Absolutely absolutely nothing was done. Absolutely nothing,” she stated.
Trucks packed with minerals cross the Mozambican border at Komatipoort to transfer their freight to the port of Maputo, contaminating the soil and waterways along the method.(Credit: Forbidden Stories )
The lady just ever gotten confidential hazards in return.” They actually telephoned me and stated I should keep my mouth shut, due to the fact that they understand where my domesticity and they understand who my kids are,” she stated silently. A number of years later on, she is still frightened.
The very same thing took place to Andrew, * a farmer Forbidden Stories satisfied from Komatipoort. He, too, wanted to speak anonymously for worry of reprisals. He remembered guys in the transportation sector informing him that they understood “guys that can arrange you out” for triggering difficulty. Andrew’s only criminal activity was fretting about how unlawfully disposing chromium and other minerals may leave enduring effect on water products and soil quality.
“This is a farming neighborhood, and we’ve got great farming soil here,” Andrew stated.” enters into a river or a pond, and you do not understand what the results are going to be over a couple of years. Some guys are farming natural fruits, and now you’ve got this things entering into your fields.” Direct exposure to chromium is extremely harmful to both people and wildlife, according to numerous research studies. Possible impacts consist of cancer, breathing illness and decreased crop yields.
A trucking problem
When asked, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment described that it had actually provided instructions to “4 trucking business whose trucks were believed to have actually perpetuated unlawful disposal of waste together with the N4 in Komatipoort. Without any proof of any compound to the commission of an ecological criminal offense, the examination stalled and ran aground.”
The authority nonetheless ensured Forbidden Stories that it was continuing to examine these occurrences of contamination, which occur in “the middle of the night or the morning hours to prevent detection”. The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources did not react to concerns when called.
Just like all minerals, the chromium supply chain stays nontransparent. A number of intermediaries might lie in between the mine and the truck that discards its freight on the roadside. Forbidden Stories got a purchase file revealing that chromium is transferred from the Sefateng Chrome Mine, situated in the Limpopo area of northeastern South Africa, to the Port of Maputo, where it is packed onto container ships.
To reach the Sefateng Chrome Mine from the border, the roadway winds through huge, marvelous landscapes: from the savanna to the range of mountains where the Limpopo mines are nestled, travelling through red-earth plateaus and citrus groves extending as far as the eye can see. It is from the town of Tsibeng, crossed by a directly, two-lane roadway, that the mine emerges.
The Sefateng Chrome Mine as seen from the roadway (left)and an indication at the mine entryway (right).
A trench sculpted straight into the mountain, extending numerous hundred metres, is the beginning point for a few of the trucks charged with carrying the valuable ore to the Port of Maputo. The mine did not react to concerns about this trade path and events of disposing. The transportation business, nevertheless, described that it has actually “developed systems and functional controls created to avoid unauthorised off-loading”.
According to custom-mades information shared by The Counter, a research study service of the NGO Soma, more than EUR800-million worth of chromite and ferrochrome from South Africa left the Port of Maputo in between January 2025 and May 2026.
That totals up to 2.6 million metric heaps. The majority of it was delivered to Asia for usage in stainless-steel production, before being directed towards the vehicle, cosmetics and building markets worldwide.
I remember they shot him a 2nd time’
In Ressano Garcia, a simple transit point for these products, Shottas’ associate Isabel * will long keep in mind the day her life was turned upside down. She was viewing the blog writer’s livestream when the very first bullet struck him. He called her right after. “I asked, ‘Where are you?’ He had actually been shot, and they would not let anybody assistance him, would not let him be eliminated from where he was,” stated Isabel.
A video shot from a various angle, after the live stream ended, verifies this account. It reveals Shottas pushing the ground, with the authorities having actually pulled back numerous lots metres. Nobody concerns his help.
Even even worse: “When he sounded me, I remember they shot him a 2nd time,” Isabel stated. “He simply desired a much better Mozambique.”
Regardless of duplicated follow-ups, neither the Mozambican justice ministry nor the Ministry of the Interior reacted to Forbidden Stories’ concerns.
On 30 December 2024, the Mozambican human rights group Centro para Democracia e Direitos Humanos submitted a problem in administrative court to hold the state civilly responsible for Shottas’ death. Ever since, the authorities have actually turned a deaf ear. No examination has actually been revealed. DM
* Name has actually been altered to secure privacy.
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