Moroccan king criticises country’s social services

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has criticised the country’s social development programmes as being unco-ordinated and for failing to target those that actually need help.

The king’s remarks, during the annual Throne Speech, have special significance because he spoke in Al Hoceima in the northern Rif region, where the Hirak Rif protest movement began.

The monarch said that ministries and public agencies spend time enforcing welfare programmes but they “overlap, lack proper coordination and don’t target the populations that actually deserve help”.

He did not mention Hirak but warned against “nihilists and other merchants of illusion” who use disfunctions “in order to strike at Morocco’s security and stability”.

The speech marked the 19th anniversary of King Mohammed’s accession to the throne.

King Mohammed, 54, has travelled to the Rif region in the past, but holding his Throne Speech in Al Hoceima was an attempt to dissuade the population against the protest movement while also encouraging public servants to fix the problems.

“I call on the government and all stakeholders concerned to undertake an in-depth, thorough restructuring of national social welfare programs and policies,” the king said. The Harak Rif movement has demanded that the king fulfill promises he made last year to build a school, a university and a hospital in the region.

The seeds of the protest began in October 2016 when an impoverished fish seller in the region was crushed to death while trying to retrieve a valuable swordfish thrown into a rubbish truck by police.

Hirak Rif leader Nasser Zefzafi, was convicted in June of threatening state security and sentenced to 20 years in prison, along with three activists. Fifty other activists received sentences ranging from one to 15 years for lesser charges.