Mozambique Elections: Lutero Simango promises more doctors, pharmaceutical industry

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Mozambique Elections: Lutero Simango promises more doctors, pharmaceutical industry

4:19 CAT | 26 Aug 2024

Screen grab: Miramar

Presidential candidate Lutero Simango promised on Saturday to create a pharmaceutical industry and implement tax cuts if elected, accusing Frelimo, the party in power since independence, of “feeding corruption”.

“We will create and build a national pharmaceutical industry, we will produce all basic medicines here in Mozambique, to ensure that our hospitals have medicines,” said Lutero Simango, candidate supported by the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), the third parliamentary force, at a rally marking the start of the electoral campaign for the general elections on October 9, in the city of Beira, Sofala province, central Mozambique.

The politician, who is also president of the MDM, accused the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) government of maintaining dependence on the import of medicines to feed corruption schemes through the payment of illicit commissions in the licensing of companies in the sector.

Lutero Simango also promised to hire more doctors for the National Health Service, to increase care for the population.

On the economic front, Simango said he would reduce Value Added Tax (VAT) from 16% to 14%, to reduce the cost of fuel and the prices of basic products.

“When the price of fuel goes down, we create purchasing power for our population, because we want to create well-being,” he declared.

Repeatedly referring to Frelimo as “the thieves in red”, the colour of the ruling party, the MDM president also promised to reduce interest rates, aiming to ensure greater availability of money for companies and families.

Lutero Simango also advocated the establishment of industries to process raw materials, to allow the country to stop exporting its wealth and retain surplus value through processing.

The installation of industries, the politician continued, would allow the creation of more jobs and reduce unemployment among young people.

In the education sector, a possible MDM government would eliminate overcrowding in primary school classes and increase teachers’ salaries, Simango said.

“We are going to put an end to classes with more than 100 students. We want to reduce the figure to 35 to 40 students per class, because that is the only way we can have quality education in schools,” he said.

Simango also highlighted the fight against crime in the country as one of his goals if he wins the October 9 elections.

The presidential candidate said that the MDM intends to replicate throughout the country the model of “good governance” that the party is implementing in the city of Beira, a local authority that he has led since 2008, following successive victories in local elections.

Lutero Simango, 64, is the son of the late Uria Simango, founder and vice-president of Frelimo, when the ruling party was still in the armed struggle against the Portuguese colonial regime.

Simango has led the MDM since the death of his brother, Daviz Simango, in 2021, who two years earlier also ran for president with the support of the MDM.

Mozambique will hold general elections on 9 October, in a ballot that includes presidential, legislative, provincial assembly and provincial governor elections.

More than 17 million voters are registered to vote, including 333,839 registered abroad, with a total of 37 political parties competing in the legislative and provincial elections, according to data from the National Electoral Commission (CNE).

In addition to Momade, the following candidates are running for the Ponta Vermelha (the official residence of the head of state in Mozambique): Daniel Chapo, supported by Frelimo; Lutero Simango, supported by the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), the third parliamentary force; and Venâncio Mondlane, supported by the extra-parliamentary Podemos and the Democratic Revolution.

Source: Lusa