Renamo dissidents demand Momade’s resignation

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Renamo dissidents demand Momade’s resignation

7:57 CAT | 19 Mar 2025

This is the latest in a wave of protests by the Renamo demobilised across the north and centre of the country. Momade himself is said to be in poor health, and receiving medical treatment outside the country. [Photo: AIM]

Men who were once guerrilla fighters in Mozambique’s former rebel movement Renamo on Monday morning used chains and padlocks to close the Renamo provincial delegation in Chimoio, capital of the central province of Manica, and burnt leaflets bearing the portrait of Renamo leader Ossufo Momade.

The protesters were demanding the immediate and unconditional resignation of Momade, whom they blame for Renamo’s poor showing in the general elections held on 9 October last year.

The spokesperson for the former guerrillas, Renamo brigadier Fernando Mafenhure, told reporters “Ossufo Momade has already given all that he had for the party. We think it’s time for him to go home and participate in party activities as a simple member”.

“We aren’t against him”, said Mafenhure, “but all the members, particularly the former guerrillas, think that he has already played his role. What he should do now is allow the party to be led by other, competent people”.

“He has shown that he is a bad leader”, Mafenhure continued. “He is not dynamic. Since he took over the leadership of Renamo in 2019, the party has been sinking. Even in terms of popularity, it has declined greatly. This does not please us as guerrillas and as members of Renamo”.

Mafenhure said he missed the late Renamo leader, Afonso Dhlakama, who died of diabetes in 2018. Dhlakama “was a fighter for true democracy and he knew how to value those who were in the bush fighting for 16 years (a reference to the war of destabilisation)”.

He complained that the demobilised fighters “are not seeing the results from our sweat and the work we did over 16 years to bring the revolution”.

He even accused Momade of forming an alliance with the ruling Frelimo Party in last year’s elections. The victory of Frelimo and of its presidential candidate, Daniel Chapo, was fraudulent, but “Ossufo Momade’s silence shows, without any doubt, that there is a high level of complicity”.

“He negotiated the elections with Frelimo!”, Mafenhure declared. “With our late leader, Afonso Dhlakama, the reaction would have been immediate. But Momade is calm and silent. This shows he is completely owned by Frelimo. He’s just deceiving us. We feel that we don’t have a President of the Party”.

So the protesters had decided to close down the provincial Renamo delegation in order to demand that Momade resign from the leadership. “In the coming days, we shall close the doors of all the district delegations, until he ceases to be our president”, said Mafenhure. “When he leaves, we must sit down and find another figure within the party to become president”.

Source: AIM