Mozambique: Business association warns of tourist bookings cancellations over post-election unrest

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Mozambique: Business association warns of tourist bookings cancellations over post-election unrest

1:46 CAT | 11 Nov 2024

File photo: CTA

Mozambican businessmen warned today of the cancellation of bookings and the reduction of “confidence” among tourists as a result of the seven days of strikes and demonstrations called for by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane.

“This situation of demonstrations is bad for the country, for the economy and for tourism in particular, because bookings are being cancelled completely, the confidence index of tourists is affected,” said the Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism representative at the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA), Muhammad Abdullah.

In statements to Lusa, thMuhammad Abdullah said that “it is premature” to talk about the figures relating to losses due to the demonstrations, but added that marketing work will be necessary to restore the confidence of tourists.

“In the case of tourism, it is the tourist confidence index that drops and this remains for some time until stability is felt and this information has an impact beyond the borders. Only then will they resume their preference for coming to Mozambique,” Abdullah warned.

Before the seven-day strikes and demonstrations, Venâncio Mondlane had previously called for marches to be held on 21, 24 and 25 October, in which Mozambican businesspeople on 30 October estimated losses of three billion meticais (€43.2 million euros), and 1,200 people unemployed as a result of destruction and looting.

“We had sabotage, vandalism, break-ins of private and commercial establishments and even production facilities (…) numbering around 33,” causing “financial losses estimated at around 3,000 million meticais. The level of vandalism of establishments is such that they will not be able to operate again,” admitted Agostinho Vuma, president of the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA).

The announcement by the National Electoral Commission (CNE) of Mozambique on October 24 of the results of the October 9 elections, which attributed victory in the presidential elections to Frelimo candidate Daniel Chapo with 70.67% of the votes, sparked a call for popular protests by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane.

According to the CNE, Mondlane came in second place, with 20.32%, but he stated that he did not recognize the results, which still have to be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council, which has no deadline for this purpose and is still analysing the dispute.

After street protests that paralyzed the country on October 21, 24 and 25, Mondlane once again called for a seven-day general strike starting October 31, with nationwide protests and a demonstration culminating in Maputo on Thursday, November 7. This resulted in chaos in the capital, with several barricades and tires burned and tear gas fired by the police throughout the day to disperse the protests.

Venâncio Mondlane announced that the protests would continue until electoral credibility was restored.

At least three people were killed and 66 were injured during clashes between protesters and police on Thursday 7 November, the eighth day of the strikes called by Venâncio Mondlane, the Maputo Central Hospital (HCM), the largest health unit in the country, announced.

“We had a cumulative 138 admissions across all our facilities, of which the adult emergency room had 101 patients. Of the 101 patients, 66 were victims of these demonstrations and the rest were for other reasons,” said Dino Lopes, director of the Adult Emergency Service at HCM.

Source: Lusa