Mozambique Elections: Renamo marches through Maputo, despite tear gas – AIM

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique Elections: Renamo marches through Maputo, despite tear gas – AIM

7:00 CAT | 18 Oct 2023

Photo: Renamo Moçambique/Facebook

Despite the police use of tear gas against the demonstrators, Tuesday’s Maputo march in protest against the results of last week’s municipal elections eventually reached its destination, the headquarters of the main opposition party, Renamo.

For most of its route, the march was peaceful. It started at Combatants Square, in the neighbourhood of Xiquelene and made its way, accompanied by the police, towards the centre of the city.

But at OMM Square, on Vladimir Lenin Avenue, there was a dispute over the route to be followed, and the police fired tear gas canisters into the crowd.

Although many people were overcome by the effects of the gas, the march continued, albeit along a different route, and eventually reached the Renamo office.

Here Renamo leader Ossufo Momade gave a speech which said nothing about the police tear gassing the crowd. Instead he concentrated on a demand that the government should grant national hero status to the first commander of Renamo, Andre Matsangaissa, and his successor Afonso Dhlakama.

Tuesday is the 44th anniversary of the death of Matsangaissa, who was killed by the Mozambican armed forces when he made an ill-judged attack against the town of Gorongosa on 17 October 1979.

Matsangaissa and Dhlakama were both appointed to their positions by the illegal white minority regime of Ian Smith, in what was then known as Rhodesia – an awkward fact that Momade passed over in silence.

Momade made it clear that Renamo was following the legal route to try to overturn the election results. He stressed that neither the police, nor the courts, nor the provincial attorneys’ offices belong to Frelimo.

He told the crowd that this was only the start – he promised that Renamo will continue holding marches “until the truth about the elections is restored”.

Another Renamo protest took place in the northern city of Nampula. This noisy, well-attended march was entirely peaceful. It was escorted by the police, but no clashes broke out.

Source: AIM