Mozambique: Activists call on President Filipe Nyusi to combat hate speech

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Mozambique: Activists call on President Filipe Nyusi to combat hate speech

7:33 CAT | 02 Mar 2021

File photo: Tiziana Fabi / AFP

Mozambique’s Human Rights Defenders Network (RMDDH) is calling for the urgent intervention of President Filipe Nyusi and the Attorney General’s Office against campaigns of threats inciting hatred and intolerance against independent voices.

“Campaigns of threats and incitement to hatred and intolerance against human rights defenders, social activists, academics, civil society organisations and independent media” are being waged” in Mozambique, the RMDDH says.

Given the seriousness of the situation, the RMDDH is calling for urgent intervention by both the President of the Republic and the Attorney General’s Office. “Their silence and the inaction of the organs of justice in the face of serious violations of fundamental rights and freedoms contribute to the institutionalization of impunity and the climate of fear in the Mozambican public sphere,” the letter sent to President Nyusi and dated February 24 reads.

In an interview with DW Africa this Friday (26-02), RMDDH activist and representative Adriano Nuvunga says that the network has requested meetings with both the president and attorney general to address these issues, for the sake of the rule of law and democracy, justice, security and public ethics.

Nuvungaa.dw_ — *Activist Adriano Nuvunga*

DW Africa: What kind of threat does the RMDDH perceive?

Adriano Nuvunga (AN): If you remember, in the last eight years, since Professor Gilles Cistac was murdered [in March 2015], the threats, kidnappings with political motivations, and particularly the institutionalisation of hate speech by a group of Mozambicans close to power, have been on the agenda. And from what we have seen in recent times, there are even murders preceded by hate speech. So, we say no! It is in this context that the Mozambican RMDDH sent that letter to the President of the Republic [Filipe Nyusi] and requested a meeting with the Attorney General of the Republic [Beatriz Buchili].

DW Africa: You say that the perpetrators of the threats are people linked to power. Have they already been identified?

AN: We indicated some of the people in the letter. We are saying that it is public knowledge that some of the people who have been inciting hatred, for some time now, are people who are cherished by the public authorities in Mozambique.

DW Africa: In the note, the network also refers to the current case of former Minister of Health, Hélder Martins. What happened to Hélder Martins?

AN: What happened was that the illustrious Julião Cumbane published a note calling Hélder Martins an old, ‘past it’ white man who wanted to be more important than black Mozambicans in their own land. This is unacceptable, not only because Hélder Martins is one of Mozambique’s liberators, but also because Mozambique is a multi-racial nation. It is a nation that, in the light of its Constitution, has in its social fabric people of the most varied origins. This is unacceptable, particularly because it comes from a person who receives a state salary and who occupies a position he was appointed to by the prime minister. He delivered a speech that was already gaining momentum. This is unacceptable. [Juião Cumbane is a Frelimo member and senior academic who currently holds the position of Chairperson of the Board of the National Company of Science and Technology Parks,. He has made a series of statements on social networks in favour of the government and against its critics].

DW Africa: Are you hoping that the Attorney General’s Office will still take these cases and investigate them effectively and with determination?

AN: My experience of democratic struggle shows that hope cannot be lost. A very simple event can result in a more active Attorney General’s Office, distancing it from its attitude of servility in relation to the public authorities. I believe this is still possible, although at the moment, the Attorney’s Office shows by its actions that it is more concerned with defending the power of the day than with freedoms and human rights in the country.

DW Africa: And can the President of the Republic contribute to a solution or is it part of the problem?

AN: I believe that the President of the Republic can [help]. And note that this president that we have is a young president. Filipe Jacinto Nyusi was a citizen, unlike President Samora Machel, President Joaquim Aberto Chissano, President Armando Guebuza, who came to the presidency as liberators, as heroes. Not this one! Nyusi is carving out his path as a statesman through the exercise of democracy, based on the Constitution of the Republic. That is why I believe that the President of the Republic may have – still has – time to leave an important legacy.

Source: Deutsche Welle