Maputo was a timid city on the dawn of a threatened strike – notes and photos from Sala da Paz

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Maputo was a timid city on the dawn of a threatened strike – notes and photos from Sala da Paz

2:33 CAT | 14 Jul 2022

Photo: Sala da Paz

Maputo was quiet this morning, on the day of the threatened strike.

At some bus terminals there was no transport; in others there were no passengers.

The usual difficulty of finding a place to park in Maputo was much relieved, many having chosen to work remotely.

On the N4 and the Maputo toll, where usually there is great congestion in the early hours, traffic today was light. It was easy to drive throughout the entire Maputo metropolitan region.

The police have deployed all their units to the roads and streets,. They are in all corners of the city, even with equipment which looks seemingly new.

The few, isolated attempts at demonstrations have been promptly stopped. For example, on Avenida Joaquim Chissano, close to 2M, there was an attempt to block the road, but normality was restored in short order. In the Manduca area, and in the Albazine and Zimpeto neighbourhoods, there were sporadic attempts at vandalism, but nothing came of them.

The few private vehicles on the road were progressing unimpeded, but for a city like Maputo, on a Thursday, with no public holiday, it was easy to see that the situation was not normal.

FEMATRO has officially encouraged transporters to work normally

Strike promoters have no face. They circulated their audio and text messages but never showed their face.

The OTM-CS, which a few days ago had threatened to call a general strike against the high costs of living, yesterday went public, distancing itself from the strike scheduled for today.

Politicians, including the government, have remained silent about the strike threat. In fact, the government held an extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers, which many expected to comment on the strike, but in the end it only announced five days of mourning for the death of the former president of the Republic of Angola.

The matter was left in the hands of the police, who have reacted to the threat with strategic positioning which so far has managed to prevent any disturbance getting off the ground.