Nyusi tells Frelimo members not to use the party for their personal interestes – Mozambique

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Nyusi tells Frelimo members not to use the party for their personal interestes – Mozambique

7:31 CAT | 10 Oct 2016

File photo / Filipe Nyusi

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, in his capacity as head of the ruling Frelimo Party, on Friday warned members of Frelimo against putting personal interests ahead of the interests of the Party.

As Frelimo advances towards its 11th Congress, scheduled for September 2017, “we have to make it very clear that Frelimo cannot be seen as a trampoline for gaining access to power in order to satisfy personal or group interests”, said Nyusi.

Speaking in the southern city of Matola, at the opening session of a two day extraordinary meeting of the Frelimo Central Committee, Nyusi noted that the frenzied rush to obtain wealth “creates and exacerbates social differences, disturbs the relations of humanism and solidarity within communities, and foments crime and violation of the right to life”.

Frelimo members, he stressed, “should be aware of this emergence of the supremacy of individual or group interests trying to dominate the environment we live in”. Such interests “want to install their tentacles among us”, he warned.

When personal interests were posed against the interests of the Party or the nation, they became “the central basis for intrigues”, and a source of violation of the Frelimo statutes, its code of conduct and itsMozambican President Filipe Nyusi, in his capacity as head of the ruling Frelimo Party, on Friday warned members of Frelimo against putting personal interests ahead of the interests of the Party.

“This phenomenon must be fought against without quarter”, Nyusi demanded, “since it corrodes our militancy and even our citizenship and undermines the internal cohesion of our Party. What distinguishes us as Party members is precisely our capacity to strike a balance between the struggle to achieve our personal or group projects and our commitment to the common good”.

“The supreme interest which must prevail is that of the Party and not that of individuals or interest groups”, he continued. “The goals of the Party must be above individual interests. A Frelimo member must be an example of integrity and of commitment to the Party, contributing fervently to the common cause, and not to personal interests”.

“Frelimo has no owner”, Nyusi stressed. “Frelimo belongs to all of us. Frelimo must use its members, and not the other way round. No member should make use of Frelimo to achieve personal goals. Instead, members should serve Frelimo, so that together we solve the people’s problems”.

The changes in Mozambican society and internationally, he continued, demand that Frelimo members “reflect upon how our Party operates so that, just as in the past, we are able at each moment to identify the main common enemy; so that, at each moment, we can distinguish between the antagonistic contradiction and the non-antagonistic confrontations that we face; so that, at each moment, we make the necessary changes in the strategy and tactics for our Party’s activities”.

This exercise, Nyusi added, “will allow us to take adequate measures for our internal organization, to define our posture in society, to re-invigorate our militancy, and contribute to defining an up-to-date Party programme that we shall present to the people”.

He noted that the number of Frelimo members has been rising, but insisted “we are also obliged to grow in quality, because our people, who are the raison d’etre of our existence, demand quality, they demand excellence”.

The 11th Congress, Nyusi said, will be the congress in which the new generation of Frelimo members “renews its commitment to take up the historical responsibility of preserving the gains made by our people, led by visionary men committed to the cause of the freedom and well being of Mozambicans”.

The “visionaries” he referred to are the founders of Frelimo, and the fighters who took up arms against Portuguese colonial rule over half a century ago, on 25 September 1964, when Frelimo launched its armed national liberation struggle. Some of those visionaries, Nyusi noted, are still alive, and present at the Central Committee meeting.

He was confident that the 11th Congress “will renew the confidence of Mozambican society in the Frelimo Party as the driving force in building the well-being of Mozambique and of Mozambicans”.

“We have the responsibility”, he told the Central Committee, “at each moment of our history, to know how to meet the just aspirations of the people”.

Over the next two days, the Central Committee will approve a set of draft theses that will be debated throughout the party in the run-up to the Congress, and will analyse recommendations emerging from the Frelimo National Cadre Conference, held on 1-3 October. The Conference was a consultative meeting, and its proposals only become binding if the Central Committee approves them.

The meeting will also approve new directive on internal Frelimo elections, establishing the rules and procedures for inner-Party elections, including the elections of Congress delegates.

An amended Frelimo Code of Conduct for the inner-Party elections will also be discussed. Nyusi said this Code “demands ever greater responsibility from our candidates and their supporters in complying to the full with the Frelimo statutes, regulations and the directive on internal elections”.

Source: AIM