Mozambique: Renamo demobilized complain about date of National Council – AIM report | Watch

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Mozambique: Renamo demobilized complain about date of National Council – AIM report | Watch

10:50 CAT | 08 Oct 2025

Screengrab: STV

Demobilised fighters from Mozambique’s former rebel movement Renamo are now complaining about the date set for the next meeting of the Renamo National Council.

For months, the demobilised guerrillas have been staging protests at Renamo offices, and sometimes occupying them, as part of their drive to force the resignation of Renamo leader Ossufo Momade.

The protesters had demanded that a meeting be called of the National Council which, in turn, would organise a Renamo Congress to elect a new leadership.

Now the Renamo Political Commission has set 16 October as the date for the National Council meeting, to be held in the northern city of Nampula. Far from regarding this as a victory, the man who claims to speak for the Renamo demobilised, Joao Machava, is protesting at the supposed delay in holding the meeting.

Cited by the independent television station STV, Machava claimed that the decision was a “time-wasting manoeuvre intended to keep Ossufo Momade in office”.

He told reporters that he did not understand the delay in holding the meeting – although bringing members of the Council from all over the country to Nampula in little more than a week will require a major logistical effort, and it is hard to see how the meeting could reasonably be held any earlier.

Machava said that, despite the date for the National Council meeting, the demobilised will continue their protests demanding the removal of Momade. Machava said Momade is leading Renamo to its disappearance.

Momade is blamed for Renamo’s poor showing in last year’s general elections, when it fell from second to third position, and Momade lost his position as runner-up in the presidential poll.

But the awkward fact, for Machava and his supporters, is that Momade was elected to lead the party at the last two Renamo congresses, in 2019 and 2024.

Momade thus enjoys a certain democratic legitimacy within Renamo, whereas nobody knows who elected Machava and the other leaders of the demobilised.

Source: AIM