Mozambique: Legacy of Samora Machel threatened by insurgent attacks – president

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Mozambique: Legacy of Samora Machel threatened by insurgent attacks – president

3:06 CAT | 20 Oct 2021

Photo: Presidente Filipe Nyusi on Facebook

Mozambique’s president, Filipe Nyusi, has said that the legacy of Samora Machel – the country’s first head of state following independence from Portugal – is threatened by insurgent attacks in the north of the country, but that the response from southern Africa has been promising.

“Samora Machel’s project is threatened by macabre actions in Cabo Delgado,” Nyusi said during a ceremony in Mbuzini, South Africa, at the memorial and museum created on the site of the plane crash 35 years ago in which Machel lost his life.

Nyusi was referring to the wave of violence in Cabo Delgado province of the past four years. Since July Mozambique government forces have had military support from Rwanda and from members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

In the face of threats to Samora’s the vision for his country, Nyusi praised the support of the SADC, particularly South Africa, speaking alongside Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, at the ceremony.

South Africa is one of the countries that have contributed to the SADC joint force fighting in Cabo Delgado and whose support is enabling Mozambique’s FADM defence forces to turn the tide in their favour in the province.

Nyusi thanked South Africa for sending its “sons” to fight in Cabo Delgado, saying that the joint military support was making it possible to “halt the aggression” against the country. He described the results as “promising”.

On Machel, Nyusi praised his family, as Samora’s widow Graça stood by his side, and highlighted the day’s “joint tribute” as an event “that will prevail through several generations.”

Graça Machel, herself a prominent activist, said in her own address that Mozambique’s first president had been “assassinated” to silence an outstanding voice in the region.

“I want to say to my children, young Africans, who are in their 30s or 20s, cry out and recover this voice that was tried to be silenced here,” she declared.

The fight against poverty, she continued, should be the priority of governments, and the region’s riches should be used for the people’s benefit.

Ramaphosa, meanwhile, stressed throughout his own speech the brotherhood between the two countries, describing Mbuzini as a “sacred” place and one “where a great sacrifice was made” by Machel.

“South Africans will never forget the contribution of Samora Machel and the people of Mozambique in the struggle to ensure our freedom” in the fight against the system of racial segregation known as apartheid, he declared.

He said that the ceremony to mark the 35th anniversary of Machel’s death is part of a series of government initiatives that “aim to redress and change the heritage landscape to authentically convey South Africa’s liberation history since colonial times”.

Mozambique first president died on 19 October 1986 when a Tupolev plane crashed at night in South African territory, in the mountainous area of Lebombo, near the Mozambican border.

A flight engineer and nine passengers – out of a total 44 people on board – survived in the crash, which prompted accusations of sabotage against South Africa’s then government. However, a 1994 enquiry into the crash carried out by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) came to no clear conclusion with regard to the causes.

Samora Machel, who was 53 when he died, was returning from a regional conference with African leaders in Lusaka, Zambia. Also killed in the crash were several leading members of his party, ministers, officials and crew of the Russian aircraft.

Source: Lusa