Mozambique Elections: CTA asks for escorts in corridors and police at multinationals

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Mozambique Elections: CTA asks for escorts in corridors and police at multinationals

5:25 CAT | 10 Dec 2024

Photo: Moz Notícias

The Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique, which brings together the private sector, on Monday asked the President of the Republic for security guarantees at multinationals, including military escorts in the country’s main corridors, the CTA president told the press on Tuesday.

“We have some multinationals that are carrying out ‘démarches’ to declare force majeure, so we warn of the need to, while urgent acts of the truce are taking place, there is also a need to help control the main corridors”, said the president of the CTA, Agostinho Vuma.

At a press conference in Maputo to take stock of Monday’s meeting with the Mozambican President, Filipe Nyusi, in light of the demonstrations called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, Vuma said that talks are already underway with the Government with a view to materializing the initiative.

“I mentioned that in the Maputo-Witbank corridor and the section from Maputo city to Ressano Garcia [largest land border] we were promised that we will have security along the section as happened in the center of the country, in other post-election conflicts in which we had an escort of the Defence and Security forces”, assured the president of the CTA, indicating that the request extends to multinational companies that also ask for policing.

Businesspeople, who point out the insecurity in the country, further warned about the growth in the unemployment rate, also indicating that multinational companies are considering declaring “force majeure” to withdraw investments from the country.

The week-long demonstrations called by Venâncio Mondlane forced the interruption of the circulation of cargo trucks in the last three days on the National Highway Number 4, the N4 corridor, which connects the city of Maputo with the border of Ressano García, with trucks queuing up more 20 kilometers on the South African side, Vuma said.

Statistics presented this Tuesday by the private sector indicate that hitherto tourism bookings for December as yet impossible to estimate have been cancelled as well as all of the bookings for January 2025 .

As a solution, the businesspeople asked the Mozambican president to first negotiate a truce with Venâncio Mondlane to put the demonstrations on hold while other negotiations take place in the electoral context, aiming to stop damage to the economy.

“What we asked for in a concrete way was a truce while other negotiations take place that, at their highest criteria, could be chosen to put an end to these situations hostile to the economy”, said Vuma.

“We proposed that it is worth looking at a situation in which the truce can minimize the impacts and the real negotiations will take place while in parallel we are witnessing a truce”, he insisted.

The CTA further announced, cited by O País, that steps are being taken for the business sector organisation to meet with political parties, including Venâncio Mondlane, in order to find solutions to the current post-electoral crisis.

Source: Lusa / O País