Maputo mainly unaffected by Renamo’s paralysation call – Lusa | Mozambique Elections

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Maputo mainly unaffected by Renamo’s paralysation call – Lusa | Mozambique Elections

1:31 CAT | 11 Dec 2023

The city of Maputo is functioning almost normally today, though affected by the heavy rain that fell early on, despite the call by the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, the largest opposition party) to paralyse the capital, contesting the election results.

During a tour this morning, Lisa saw that public services are operating normally, as are some transport and shops, although some shopping centres in the downtown area of the capital are closed, while the rain that has been affecting Maputo for almost three days is affecting the usual street sales, which are calmer today compared to other days.

In some places, such as Praça dos Combatentes, heavy police reinforcement is visible, but no incidents have been reported, while other small businesses have chosen not to open.

On Friday, Renamo appealed for everyone to stay at home today and said that it was “not responsible” for the consequences of anyone not doing so.

Carolina Manhique, 43, a street vendor selling badjias, a typical bean pastry, told Lusa that she was surprised to find little traffic in the city but was unaware of Renamo’s appeal.

“When I heard about it, I was scared, but thank God I sold and finished, and I’m going home now,” said the vendor, a mother of two who supports them with this business.

“I come from Magoanine, and there was no traffic there either in the morning. If I’d known about the strike, I wouldn’t have left home, even though life is too hard to stay at home, but taking risks isn’t good either,” Carolina said as she waited for transport at the Guerra Popular bus stop in the city to return home.

Manuel Marrengula, an electrician, told Lusa that he had “heard about the strike” today, but he had to leave his house. “Even if I’m scared, there’s no way I’m not going to leave the house. If the boss says I have to work, there’s no way.”

While waiting in Praça dos Trabalhadores to go to kaTembe for a construction job, he admitted the difficulty in getting transport. “It hasn’t turned up yet. On normal days I would have caught one by now.”

In a statement released on Sunday, Renamo said that joining the strike “is voluntary, so declining to do so is legitimate, but the Renamo party in Maputo City is not responsible for any social impacts”.

“As part of the struggle for electoral justice,” Renamo “communicates to all residents, businesspeople, students, informal sector workers, residents or users of services in the Maputo city district” that this Monday “there will be a mega protest aimed at repudiating the results presented by the Constitutional Council, called ‘Monday Paralysed: Maputo Do Electoral Justice'”.

On 28 November, in one of the dozens of marches in Maputo to contest the results announced, hundreds of Renamo supporters once again took to the streets to say that the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) “will not govern” the capital, with the party’s candidate, Venâncio Mondlane, calling for the city to be brought to a standstill.

“The time has come for the people to prove that it is the people who are in power,” warned Venâncio Mondlane as he addressed the crowd waiting for him outside what was then the first protest march in the capital following the proclamation of the election results by the Constitutional Council (CC) four days earlier.

“Let’s all agree for two days to stop everything in this city,” he said at the time, in an appeal to all professional classes, guaranteeing that it is necessary to “paralyse the economy” in order to challenge the “fraud” in the local elections and “return victory to the people”.

On 24 November, the CC, the final court of appeal in electoral processes in Mozambique, proclaimed Frelimo, the ruling party, the winner of the local elections in 56 municipalities, including Maputo, against the previous 64 announced by the CNE, with Renamo going from none to four, and ordered repeat elections in another four.

Source: Lusa