Mozambique Elections: Graça Machel argues that Frelimo must "honestly recognise defeats"
File photo: Facebook / Raul Novinte
The newly elected mayor of the northern Mozambican city of Nacala, Raul Novinte, is facing opposition from members of his own party, the former rebel movement Renamo, over the composition of the future municipal council, reports Monday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Moçambique”.
Novinte insists that one of the criteria for becoming a city councillor should be competence rather than party loyalty. Other Renamo members insist that it is the party and not the incoming mayor which should be determinant in choosing the councillors.
An angry exchange between Novinte and Feliciano Linha, a Renamo member who teaches at SEMICA, a charity school in Nacala which was founded by Novinte, was recorded and is circulating on Mozambican social media.
In this conversation, Novinte says he wants to form an “inclusive” government, and will only agree to work with “competent people”. He warned that he is prepared to resign, if Renamo interferes in his choice of councillors. “We don’t want people from Frelimo giving orders in our government”, said Linha. “We have people capable of leading, and if you act in this way you’re not going to last”.
Novinte retorted that he will not accept orders from higher up the Renamo hierarchy. “It is not up to people in Nampula City to decide who should govern in Nacala”, he said. Furthermore, councillors should be chosen because of their “ideas, responsibility, respect and dignity. He would not choose somebody just because they had a degree (presumably referring to Linha himself).
Linha then declared “Renamo, its political delegation and other cadres in charge of Nacala nationally will determine who shall be in the Nacala government, and it is not up to you to decide the matter on your own”.
Novinte asked Linha, “if you are not respecting me now, when I haven’t even taken office, do you think I will invite you into my government?”
“It’s not up to you to invite me”, snapped Linha, “it’s the party that will ask us to join the Nacala government”.
Nacala sources told “Carta de Moçambique”, that this dispute has arisen because Novinte intends to invite into his executive people who are part of the current municipal council, under the outgoing Frelimo mayor Rui Chong Saw.
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