CIP Mozambique Elections: Tipping point and youth anger

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CIP Mozambique Elections: Tipping point and youth anger

4:00 CAT | 02 Dec 2024

Image: CIP Eleições

Comment: A tipping point has been passed

This [past] week attacks have increased on police posts and Frelimo buildings. The police response has become more aggressive, with more than 85 people killed in the past month. An armoured car drove directly at protesters on Wednesday, and, for the first time, five embassies objected.

Frelimo has pushed hard to marginalise Venâncio Mondlane, by trying to keep him off the ballot paper and now by making sure he must remain outside Mozambique. But it has also marginalised his attempts to promote peaceful demonstrations – stay-aways, panelaços. posters, and so on. His call this week for people to go to work but block streets by parking their cars on main roads was totally ignored; instead there were more protesters on the streets.

But the big change is that disaffected young people who feel they have no future and no voice are becoming more violent. They are closing roads, stoning cars and demanding tolls. And they are physically attacking the police and Frelimo. To see the anger, look at the videos in the article below.

Mozambique saw this seven years ago in Cabo Delgado. Frelimo’s hard line response instead of offering jobs and listening to young people means the civil war there is continuing and has not been stopped by Rwandan troops.

The Frelimo leadership are hoping to maintain the hard line. They hope the Constitutional Council anointing Daniel Chapo as President on Christmas eve and his inauguration on 12 January will solidify Frelimo power. But the youth rebellion this week is increasingly looking similar to the early days of the Cabo Delgado war.

Frelimo has already lost the support of the professionals – lawyers, doctors, and teachers. The Maputo middle class voted against Frelimo in recent elections. And young people are no longer listening to their elders, and are launching their own war.

Will the Frelimo leadership assume they are in control until they are forced to fly to Dubai? Or are there people in Frelimo who accept the need for major change? The protests are no longer about the elections, but about youth poverty, marginalisation, and lack of a future.

Police stations ransacked in Maputo and Inhassoro

Mass reactions to police shootings took place on Thursday (28 Nov). The police command in the village of Mangungumeta, Inhassoro district, Inhambane, was burnt down and firearms were seized by members of the public. Demonstrators killed a policeman in Mangungumeta.

In Zimpeto neighbourhood, Maputo city, the police shot dead one demonstrator. A large group of local people attacked and vandalised the police station, and took at least one gun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LNBoB-k8us and https://drive.google.com/file/d/1661XDZZ1DFis1bPKCXwleS4FZ6qgvFCs/view

In Maputo province, demonstrators destroyed the Frelimo office in Matola-Rio

(https://drive.google.com/file/d/15z-vdFh-nzbNBvmDv_Fd9hy3EjBqGQCn/view).

Mangungumeta police fire at peaceful demonstrators

In Mangungumeta, members of the public were demonstrating peacefully when police tried to disperse them by firing live ammunition. At least three demonstrators were hit.

In reaction, the public vandalized and set fire to the police post . Some of the demonstrators seized firearms. It is not known how many guns remained in the hands of the public, but our sources indicate four. The house of the head of the police post in Mangungumeta village was also burnt down, and so was the Civil Identification Directorate which was located alongside the police post. The police agents were obliged to flee. Some of them were injured, two of them seriously. One of the seriously injured policemen died later in the Inhassoro health centre.

The Inhassoro police district commander requested reinforcements from the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR – the riot police) stationed in Maxixe, about 300 kilometres away. But when the UIR contingent reached Murure locality, in the Mapinhane administrative post, in Vilankulo district, they found the road blocked by demonstrators. A helicopter was requested to carry other police agents to Inhassoro.

After vandalising the police post at Mangungumeta, demonstrators attacked the Frelimo headquarters. They removed propaganda material and burnt it, and then set the building itself on fire.

Sasol fearful with demonstration at Mangungumeta

The attack on the Inhassoro police post put the South African petrochemical giant Sasol on maximum alert. In the district, 28 communities are identified as impacted by Sasol.

Sasol is blamed for the levels of poverty in Inhassoro and Vilankulo, where it has been exploiting natural gas since 2004. After 20 years, the local population feel no benefits from the gas; poverty and unemployment are very high. The greatest beneficiaries from the exploitation of the gas are the shareholders and the companies that provide services to Sasol.

Mock “graves” of Frelimo figures in the streets

In several Maputo streets, on Thursday mock graves were built, on which demonstrators put the names and photographs of key figures in the Frelimo Party – Filipe Nyusi, Bernardino Rafael, Daniel Chapo, Carlos Matsinhe, Verónica Macamo, Joaquim Chissano and Armando Guebuza.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16dzRWcBQtMGn4h8y0wR1MM6NbuxIH714/view

Anyone with a vehicle or a motorbike can only drive past the “graves” if they water them or place wreaths (https://drive.google.com/file/d/16j_omyZs3GwozWCdRNSYZ0ZbA2LCCspf/view).

Filipe Nyusi is the current President of Frelimo and of the Republic, while Daniel Chapo is the party’s general secretary and presidential candidate. Bernardino Rafael is the General Commander of the police, while Verónica Macamo is the Frelimo national election agent, and the country’s foreign minister. Anglican bishop Carlos Matsinhe is the chairperson of the National Elections Commission (CNE). In what is now jokingly called the “Square of the 70%” (percentage of votes given to Frelimo by the CNE) there are also mock graves of the two honorary presidents of Frelimo, Joaquim Chissano and Armando Guebuza.

Source: Centro de Integridade Pública - CIP Eleições