CIP Mozambique Elections: Renamo head to quit

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CIP Mozambique Elections: Renamo head to quit

4:12 CAT | 29 Oct 2024

File photo: DW

Renamo guerrillas storm national headquarters

Former guerrillas yesterday (Monday) stormed the Renamo national headquarters to put pressure on party leader Ossufo Momade to return to war. A senior source in Renamo said that the former guerrillas are willing to go back to the bush to resume the armed conflict. The former fighters only withdrew from the headquarters after discussions.

Renamo head Ossufo Momade offers to quit

Renamo leader Ossufo Momade offered to resign during a meeting of the Renamo National Political Commission Saturday (26 October) in the Pensão Martins, in Maputo city.

In his first intervention in the meeting of the National Political Commission, Ossufo Momade announced that he was resigning because he understood that he was the problem in Renamo. “Right now, I am the problem of this organization”, he told the meeting.

Most members of the National Commission agreed with Momade’s offer to resign, but a minority of six or seven members disagreed, including Celeste Macote, former leader of the Renamo Women’s League, and Victor Mudivila Viandro.

At the end of the meeting, the Political Commission advised that matters should go forward only after the election dispute, supposedly because they were all acting “with hot heads”. Furthermore, were Momade to leave his post immediately, Renamo would be led temporarily by José Manteigas, who chairs the National Council, and he is strongly opposed within Renamo.

The Council said Ossufo Momade should call a meeting of the Renamo National Council to announce the decision and lay down the steps to be followed until a Congress is held. The National Council will meet next year, as soon as the current election crisis is over.

Momade should establish conditions for a transition that does not increase divisions inside Renamo. His successor should be as consensual a figure as possible, who might pave the way for the return of members who had left Renamo, such as Manuel Bissopo, and the sons of Afonso Dhlakama, including the possibility of the return of Venâncio Mondlane.

Renamo will amend its statutes so that the president of the party is not necessarily and automatically the party’s candidate in presidential elections. This will allow Renamo to have a President and to find a party candidate without conflicts between them.

This idea emerged at the last Renamo Congress. There had been an initial consensus that Ossufo Momade would not be the Renamo candidate. Momade had accepted the proposal, but after he was re-elected party leader, he accepted a proposal from members that he would be the presidential candidate.

A short list of possible Renamo candidates would include Manuel de Araujo, Ivone Soares and Venâncio Mondlane (who would have to return to the party after being expelled). Renamo had also raised the possibility of advancing with Rosário Fernandes, but that would need his acceptance, given his ties with the Frelimo Party, and also his acceptance by the radical wings of Renamo.

Source: Source: Centro de Integridade Pública - CIP Eleições