Relações regionais e reactivação do projecto de Cahora Bassa em Moçambique, 1981-1988

Abstract

One of the main objectives of this work is based on identification and understanding, in addition to the war factor itself, other reasons for not reactivating the Cahora Bassa Dam (BCB) in the 1980s. which culminated in the signing of two agreements, one on 2 May 1984 and the other on 22 June 1988, it was not possible to reactivate South Africa's energy source. South Africa was involved in the RENAMO war in Mozambique1, a fact that leads us to question whether it really was in the South Africans' real interest to contribute to the reactivation of the BCB, when they were taking part in the tripartite? Now, the expansionist and energy self-sufficiency policy of ESKOfff gives us the answer. ^ With the excess capacity tapped by ESKOM, a BCB has lost a significant part of its importance to South Africans. On the other hand, the South African military was never interested in the enterprise if not in defending its political interests using all possible means. At the same time, South Africans have a diplomatic interest in the conventions to convince the world of their political reforms. Portugal, as part of the project, on the one hand, was concerned with the reactivation of the BCB, but on the other hand, kept the official RENAMO headquarters, which knocked down the CB poles, lodged in its capital, Lisbon. Therefore, it is in the articulation of all these strategic factors that we find the reasons for the non-reactivation of the BCB during the 1980s.