Mozambique: Mondlane accused president of stoking violence in ‘spilling blood’ speech

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Mozambique: Mondlane accused president of stoking violence in ‘spilling blood’ speech

9:06 CAT | 12 Mar 2025

File photo: Lusa

Former Mozambique presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane said on Tuesday that there was “real bloodshed” after the speech by the country’s president about “spilling blood” to stop protests – stating that he had submitted a criminal complaint about the remarks in fulfilment of a “civic duty” on his part.

“You know that after those statements were made, a series of real bloodshed followed,” declared Mondlane, at the end of a hearing at the office of Mozambique’s attorney general in Maputo.

Mondlane on Tuesday submitted a criminal complaint to the Public Prosecution Service against the head of state, Daniel Chapo, accusing him of instigating violence in his speech about “spilling blood” to stop protests.

“On the highest pedestal of the magistracy, which swore to uphold the constitution… he tramples on the mother law, when at stake is the elimination of those who legitimately demand, within the constitutional framework of the law, justice, neutrality and impartiality of the electoral bodies and the high court of the electoral magistracy,” reads Mondlane’s complaint against the president, released shortly after the politician began to be heard by prosecutors.

The president said on 24 February that he would fight the post-election demonstrations and ensure the country’s independence and sovereignty.

“Just as we are fighting terrorism and there are young people who are shedding blood for the territorial integrity of Mozambique, for the sovereignty of Mozambique, to maintain our independence, here in Cabo Delgado, even if it is to shed blood to defend this homeland against the demonstrations, we will shed blood,” said the head of state.

At the end of almost 10 hours of hearings on one of the eight cases in which he is accused of fomenting violence in the form of post-election protests and social unrest, Mondlane pointed to as consequences of Daniel Chapo’s speech the shooting dead on Sunday in Inhambane province of two members of his “political project” – in addition to the alleged attack he was the target of on 5 March, when he was leading a march in the country’s capital, in which 16 people were injured.

The former presidential candidate said that he had also submitted a complaint to the attorney general’s office and the Ministry of the Interior against the Mozambican police accused of using violence against 411 people from his “political project” – resulting in the deaths of at least 42.

“I think I have fulfilled my civic duty, because everyone knew that that act, those statements made in Palma [in Cabo Delgado province] are undisguised incitement to violence by public institutions like the police,” he said.

Since October, Mozambique has been wracked by widespread social unrest, with demonstrations and stoppages, many of them called by Mondlane, who continues to reject the official results of the 9 October presidential election, which handed victory to Chapo, the canidate of the governing Frelimo party.

The protests, which are now on a smaller scale, have been taking place in different parts of the country. As well as contesting the election results, people have been protesting about the rising cost of living and other social problems.

Since October, at least 353 people have died in the violence, including around two dozen minors, according to Plataforma Eleitoral Decide, a non-governmental organisation that monitors electoral processes.

The government has confirmed the deaths of at least 80 people, as well as the destruction of 1,677 commercial establishments, 177 schools and 23 health centres during the demonstrations.

Source: Lusa