Mozambique Elections: Mondlane accepts Nyusi’s offer of dialogue – AIM report

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Mozambique Elections: Mondlane accepts Nyusi’s offer of dialogue – AIM report

6:55 CAT | 25 Nov 2024

File photo: Venâncio Mondlane / Facebook

Mozambican presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane said on Thursday that he is willing to enter into a dialogue with President Filipe Nyusi, but that this meeting should also be attended by Daniel Chapo, the Frelimo presidential candidate, Lutero Simango, of the Mozambique Democratic Movement Moçambique (MDM) and the president of PODEMOS, Albino Forquilha.

He also insisted that the meeting should have a clear agenda. Mondlane was speaking from an undisclosed location in a broadcast transmitted live on his Facebook page.

There are contradictory claims about Mondlane’s whereabouts. Some say he is in Europe (with Holland and Switzerland mentioned as possible destinations). But if he wants to return quickly to Mozambique, it would make more sense for him to be hiding across the border in South Africa.

Mondlane announced that, on Friday, he will send Nyusi a proposal that should be discussed at the meeting. “The meeting should have an agenda”, he said, “and so that I don’t go there empty handed, tomorrow I shall submit to the President a notice signed by me and supported by various citizens who, throughout this period I have asked for their opinions about the demonstrations. The agenda has 20 points, and we shall share it with the Mozambican people and the international community”.

Mondlane has ordered a stop to street demonstrations, calling for no unnecessary violence. But the support through motorists sounding their horns and dressed in mourning clothes will continue until Friday. Then other, as yet unspecified, stages in the demonstrations will follow.

On Tuesday, during an address to the nation, Nyusi made his call for a dialogue involving all the presidential candidates. A letter from Nyusi’s office has invited Mondlane to a meeting to be held in the President’s office on 26 November, to discuss the situation in the country in the post-election period.

The obvious snag is that Mondlane is a wanted man, and he might be arrested as soon as he sets foot in the country. The Public Prosecutor’s Office has accused him of a crime against state security, alleging that he intended to seize power through unconstitutional means.

There is also a civil suit against Mondlane and the Podemos party demanding payment of compensation to the state of the equivalent of 505 million dollars to cover damage caused during the demonstrations.

The Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) has now moved to freeze Mondlane’s bank accounts, and has demanded information about all his bank transactions over the past year.

Source: AIM