South African president did not mention (Renamo’s) mediation crisis request – Nyusi

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South African president did not mention (Renamo’s) mediation crisis request – Nyusi

8:27 CAT | 20 Jan 2016

Lusa (File) / Southa African president Jacob Zuma stands next to Mozambique's president Filipe Nyusi during the inauguration of the monument in honour of apartheid victims in Matola ( September 2015).

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said on Tuesday that his South African counterpart, Jacob Zuma, did not you mention any request by the leader of Renamo, the main Mozambican opposition party, to mediate in Mozambique’s political crisis.

“(Jacob Zuma) did not mention it (the request for mediation in the political crisis) to me,” President Nyusi said, speaking at a press conference in Maputo on the outcome of the meeting of the Defence and Security Agency of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on the political crisis in Lesotho.

The leader of Renamo (Mozambique National Resistance), Mozambique’s largest opposition party, Afonso Dhlakama, said last week that Zuma was willing to mediate the political crisis in the country, after a request addressed by his party to the South African government.

“Yes, I already had that answer. The Catholic Church has also expressed its readiness, only it can not go by itself, these things of mediation, you know, it is necessary that both sides are available. It is necessary that Frelimo and the government also show good will. And we have indications that President (Jacob) Zuma is willing to help the Mozambican brothers,” said Dhlakama, speaking by phone to members of his party in Beira, capital of Sofala province.

In addition to proposing the involvement of the head of South African state, Renamo also proposes the intervention of the Catholic Church in mediating the dispute between the party and the Mozambican government, necessary since the announcement of the results of the October 2014 elections, considered by the main opposition party of fraudulently favouring Frelimo (Mozambique Liberation Front), the ruling party.

Questioned by the Mozambican media upon his return from Gaborone, capital of Botswana, the Mozambican president said that during the meeting with Jacob Zuma on Monday, within the SADC meeting, there has been no reference to the request for mediation supposedly made by Renamo.

In public statements he has made in recent days, Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama said that he has returned to Satjundjira in Gorongosa district, but some circles question the reliability of such information, taking into account the allegedly strong presence of the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces in the area.

Afonso Dhlakama was based in Satjundjira between April 2013 and September 2014 during clashes between its armed wing and state Defence and Security Forces resulting from the dispute with the government over the county’s electoral laws.

Source: Lusa