Graça Machel supports Samito’s candidacy

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Graça Machel supports Samito’s candidacy

1:18 CAT | 17 Aug 2018

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The widow of the first president of Mozambique, Graça Machel, said yesterday that she would be supporting Samora Machel Júnior in the run for the presidency of the Municipality of Maputo City.

Asked about Samito’s decision to accept the candidacy of the Youth Association for the Development of Mozambique (AJUDEM), Graça started by recalling that she was a mother, before being a citizen and a member of the Frelimo Central Committee.

“I am a mother. While some people think with their heads and others feel with their hearts, for me it is the navel that speaks. I’m here as a citizen and as a member of Frelimo, but I am a mother and people have to remember one thing: Josina is not here, Samora is not here. The only person who could be at Samito’s side to advise or not to advise … There must be many, but the only mother is this one. There is no other,” she said.

Graça Machel also says that Samora Machel Junior is an adult and responsible for his own decisions. “Samito is 48 years old and will turn 49 in November. Next year he turns 50. Samito is an adult and makes his decisions as an adult citizen. Samito knows what he’s doing. Samito did not wake up overnight and just decide to do what he was doing. According to what I’ve been learning, he had been preparing this for two years and I was not even aware of it,” she said.

Samora Machel Junior is the son of Samora Machel, the first president of independent Mozambique, and of Josina Muthemba Machel, the heroine of the liberation struggle, who died of cancer at the age of 25 on April 7, 1971, when her son was less than two years old. Josina became one of the most iconic figures in the struggle for independence and for the promotion of African women. On 7 April, in her honour and memory, the country celebrates “Mozambican Women’s Day”.

Graça Simbine Machel is the widow of former South African president Nelson Mandela and former president of Mozambique Samora Machel. She is an international advocate for the rights of women and children and famous for, among other things, producing the Report on the Impact of Armed Conflicts on Children, known as the Machel Report, published in 1996.

Source: Folha de Maputo / Faro di Roma