Mozambique; General elections will cost €289M – election commission
Notícias / President Filipe Nyusi
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Friday called for members and supporters of rival political parties in Gurue municipality, in the central province of Zambezia, to adopt a posture of dialogue in solving the problems that affect municipal residents.
The concept of dialogue, he said, was valid not just for the talks between himself and Afonso Dhlakama, the leader of the Renamo rebels, but should be used as a method by Mozambicans at all levels where there is a need to overcome problems.
Like the provincial capital, Quelimane, Gurue municipality has an opposition mayor, from the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), and an MDM majority in the municipal assembly, who claim that they are being sabotaged by the Gurue district administrator.
When he read a message to the rally chaired by Nyusi, the Mayor of Gurue, Orlando Janeiro, said there is a harsh and bitter atmosphere in the municipality and evident signs of intolerance by members of the ruling Frelimo Party towards the MDM.
As if to prove him right, Frelimo supporters heckled him during his intervention, and claimed that he was lying.
Janeiro was particularly concerned at the severe problems of water supply faced by the growing population of the municipality. He accused the district administrator, Costa Cherembue, of deliberately obstructing the Municipal Council’s plans to improve the water situation.
Nyusi replied that it was “inconceivable” that an administrator would deliberately hinder a programme intended to bring benefits to the very people he was administering. But if this was indeed the case, then the administrator would be changed. He warned that political rivalries would merely delay the development of Gurue.
Nyusi said the government was aware that the water problems faced by Gurue are very serious and cannot be solved simply by replacing a pipe. There needed to be a complete overhaul of the Gurue water supply system, and this was indeed in the government’s programme.
Gurue is on a list of the 18 towns for which the government, in close collaboration with its development partners, has drawn up projects for greatly increasing the availability of water for their inhabitants.
Access to clean drinking water is a government priority, said Nyusi, and “if all goes well, next year a new water supply system will be built in Gurue”.
Nyusi also urged the population of Gurue to be intolerant towards corruption, and particularly towards the looting of the country’s forest resources, which enriches a handful of timber buyers and leaves the rest of the country in a state of misery and deforestation.
“Let us fight against corruption, and let’s protect our forestry resources to prevent one group from becoming rich at the expense of the majority of Mozambicans”, he declared.
Nyusi said it is the task of all Mozambicans to protect the country’s natural resources – and yet there are those who are complicit in illegal logging, including forest wardens. The timber is extracted under the very eyes of those whose job it is to protect the forests. He attacked those forestry officials who allow illegally logged wood to pass on the roads, and who issue false licences to timber operators.
The President said he wanted to see Mozambique’s forest resources benefit all Mozambicans, and not just a tiny minority.
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