Mozambique: Chapo claims internal and outside forces tried to remove Frelimo from power – AIM report

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Mozambique: Chapo claims internal and outside forces tried to remove Frelimo from power – AIM report

6:00 CAT | 03 Apr 2025

Photo: Frelimo

Mozambican President Daniel Chapo, speaking in his capacity as leader of the ruling Frelimo Party, on Thursday claimed that Frelimo had fought the October 2024 general elections “in a conjuncture marked by strong external and internal pressures, seeking, at all costs, to remove Frelimo from power”.

Addressing a meeting in the southern municipality of Matola of the Frelimo Central Committee, Chapo said the attacks against Frelimo were part of a global strategy to get rid of the former national liberation movements throughout southern Africa. He offered no evidence for this claim.

Chapo said it was Frelimo’s high level of organisation that had allowed Frelimo to defeat its adversaries and win the elections. He claimed that the victory of Frelimo “was the real electoral truth”. The “violent, illegal and criminal demonstrations” that had followed the announcement of the election results, had nothing to do with the elections, but were “simply a meticulously prepared agenda to destabilise the country, and particularly to strangle its economy”.

Chapo blamed the violent unrest on “a certain defeated candidate”, clearly referring to Venancio Mondlane, the runner-up in the presidential elections.

He called on the Central Committee members “to make a frank and dispassionate analysis of the true causes” of the violence. To make such an analysis, he added, “we must look inside our own party to identify and correct eventual deviations and shortcomings in applying our principles and values”.

Chapo wanted Frelimo to emerge from the current meeting “renewed, more cohesive and more capable of winning new victories”. While other parties were stuck in the past, he said, Frelimo was looking ahead to the municipal elections of 2028 and the general elections of 2029.

The report to the Central Committee from the Political Commission said that factors contributing to the post-election unrest included “the government’s difficulties in providing for the basic needs of the population, political intolerance within society, the arrogance and lack of humility of some of our leaders which distances them from the public, and corruption”.

The current meeting, Chapo said, was an opportunity for Frelimo “to reflect deeply and define mechanisms to pull the country out of the current crisis”.

Some of the issues that deserved attention, he added, included “the relationship between Frelimo and the people, in order to give greater legitimacy to the party to continue leading the destinies of the country; the promotion of integrity and the fight against corruption; the creation of the levers for economic independence; and the deepening of democracy inside the party”.

Chapo called on Frelimo members “to be more open to debate, to criticism and self-criticism, avoiding going onto the defensive”.

He urged Central Committee members “to think outside of the box, to recognise our weaknesses as an organisation, and to draw up strategies that will lead to strengthening cohesion and unity”.

This meeting will elect the members of the Central Committee Secretariat, and discuss amendments to the Frelimo statutes. It will also approve the Frelimo plan of action and budget for 2025.

Chapo called on Frelimo to “go down to the grass roots, with a message of peace, love, forgiveness and reconciliation, while explaining the truth about the elections”.

Source: AIM