Mozambique: New leader for Frelimo youth wing – AIM report

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Mozambique: New leader for Frelimo youth wing – AIM report

8:18 CAT | 24 May 2022

Silva Livone and Anchia Talapa. [Photo:Anchia Safina Talapa (Formiga) on Facebook]

Silva Livone, the new General Secretary of the Mozambique Youth Organisation (OJM), the youth wing of the ruling Frelimo Party, elected on Saturday, at the end of the OJM Second Congress, has called for unity among all members of the organisation.

“Only with unity will the organisation be able to comply with its guidelines for the next five years”, he warned.

Livone won with 93 votes (60.4 per cent) against 61 (39.6 per cent) for the only other candidate, Gemesio Candido.

Addressing the closing session of the congress, the Frelimo General Secretary, Roque Silva, said that the generational change in the country’s leadership, should not be confused with a conflict between generations.

Instead, the transition “invites young people to accept the true scale of the heavy responsibility they have, in order to guarantee that the Frelimo project continues to unfold normally and achieves the success we all desire”, he added.

The focus for the new OJM leadership, Silva said is to guarantee Frelimo’s victory in the next round of elections (municipal elections in 2023, and presidential and parliamentary elections in 2024).

“In preparing Frelimo’s victory, the OJM should bank on involving all young people in civic and patriotic education, and inculcate into youths the spirit of a responsible vote, that is, a vote for Frelimo and its candidates”, he declared. That was the only way to guarantee their own future and the future of all Mozambicans.

Silva also urged the new leadership to continue rejuvenating the OJM, and “to create conditions for the financial stability of the organisation”.

Unconditional support for another five years?

The outgoing general secretary, Anchia Talapa, who had been at the head of the OJM since 2015, declared that President Filipe Nyusi should remain the head of Frelimo for another five years.

“Comrade President, we want here and now to confirm our unconditional support for you to remain the leader of our Party for another five years”, said Talapa. “We are with you in the run-up to the 12th Congress of Frelimo (scheduled for September this year)”.

This was interpreted in some of the media as support for Nyusi running for a third term as President of the Republic. But it seems as if Talapa was only talking about the Presidency of Frelimo.

Frelimo does not like having two heads. Previous attempts to separate the jobs of President of the Republic and President of Frelimo have come to grief. When Armando Guebuza won the 2004 Presidential election, there was an abortive attempt to keep on his predecessor, Joaquim Chissano, as President of Frelimo.

The same thing happened when Nyusi won the 2014 election: Guebuza’s allies wanted him to continue as leader of Frelimo. The Frelimo Central Committee disagreed, and so Guebuza had to resign as President of the Party.

Those who want a third term for Nyusi are running out of time. The Mozambican Constitution states that the same person can only occupy the Presidency for two consecutive terms. So a third term would require changing the Constitution, and this needs a two thirds majority in the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.

Frelimo enjoys a two thirds majority – but there is no sign that the matter has been discussed in the Frelimo parliamentary group, or that a majority of Frelimo deputies would support a third term for Nyusi. Certainly nobody has submitted any proposal to change the Constitution. Proposed constitutional amendments must be submitted at least 90 days before the parliamentary debate begins.

The Assembly will not sit in plenary session again before October, and the end of year session is normally dominated by the debate over the budget and plan for the following year.

Source: AIM