Agostinho Vuma elected new chairperson of CTA

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Agostinho Vuma elected new chairperson of CTA

7:07 CAT | 26 May 2017

TVM / Agostinho Vuma

The Confederation of Mozambican Business Associations (CTA), the body that represents Mozambican employers, on Thursday night announced that, by a narrow margin, Agostinho Vuma has been elected its new chairperson.

Vuma won 56 votes against 50 votes cast for his opponent, Quessanias Matsombe, who was proposed by the Mozambican Tourism Federation (FEMOTUR).

Vuma is the head of the Mozambican Association of Contractors, and he is also a member of parliament for the ruling Frelimo Party. This led him to be regarded as the Frelimo candidate for the CTA leadership. Sources in Frelimo deny this, and point out that Matsombe is also a member of the party.

But Vuma is certainly the candidate of continuity. His campaign was strongly supported by the outgoing CTA chairperson, Rogerio Manuel, and by his predecessor Salimo Abdula.

There was almost no election at all – the CTA elections commission used entirely spurious grounds to disqualify Matsombe. The commission claimed that he did not have nomination papers from the requisite number of at least ten associations enrolled in the CTA. Matsombe retorted that this accusation was false, and he had more than enough nominations.

Matsombe and his backers resorted, successfully, to the courts. They applied for and obtained a restraining order from a Maputo urban district court, which barred the CTA from holding the election until the court had a chance to examine the evidence presented by Matsombe.

Faced with the strong possibility that the court would find in Matsombe’s favour, an emergency CTA General Assembly overruled the electoral commission, and decided that Matsombe’s name would appear on the ballot paper.

The election itself had moments of tension, and at one point Matsombe said he had to meet with certain associations “clandestinely”, because they had received threats from Vuma supporters.

This was taken seriously enough for police to be sent to the voting site on Thursday. But in the event the voting took place peacefully and here was no need for police intervention.

112 associations were entitled to vote, and 106 exercised that right. When the result was announced, Vuma said he accepted “the challenge to chair our CTA”, and pledged that he would work “to strengthen public-private dialogue”.

Matsombe accepted defeat and said he was proud that he had ensured an election “worthy of the name”. This broke the CTA’s tradition of only having one candidate for the position of chairperson.

“This was an exercise which shows that the CTA is indeed growing”, he said. “I feel calm, satisfied and happy. Because I am the person who made sure this would happen, I feel victorious”.

The voting had shown it was possible to hold transparent elections in the CTA, he added. “This has never happened before”, he said. “We should be an example for the politicians”.

Matsombe said he would cooperate with the CTA leadership headed by Vuma, even though he does not agree with the priorities in Vuma’s election programme.