Mozambique: Opposition militants being ‘coerced’ to switch parties, pay dues to Frelimo – Renamo

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Mozambique: Opposition militants being ‘coerced’ to switch parties, pay dues to Frelimo – Renamo

4:31 CAT | 14 Oct 2020

File photo: Lusa

The Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) on Wednesday accused the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo, the ruling party) of coercing members of the main opposition party, forcing them to pay membership fees and making them its militants.

“There are cases where members of Renamo are forced to pay dues in favour of the Frelimo party,” said Renamo secretary general, André Magibire, speaking in the opening speech of the meeting of the organisation’s executives

André Magibire explained that in Gorongosa district, Sofala province, central Mozambique, Frelimo leaders have been compelling Renamo militants to “surrender” to the ruling party’s ranks, forcing them to pay quotas.

He described as “martyrdom” the environment in which Renamo militants exercise party activity in the provinces of Manica and Sofala, in the centre of the country, due to the high level of persecution to which they have been subjected.

He considered the alleged repression of party members to be contrary to the spirit and letter of the Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation signed on 6 August 2019, reiterating the party’s commitment to respect it.

“Renamo guerillas are being demobilized because we no longer want to use weapons, we want to make politics, we want the fighters to go to their homes and fit into society,” André Majibire stressed.

Under the Peace and Reconciliation Agreement, the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) of Renamo guerrillas is underway, with 1,075 former guerrillas covered out of a total of 5,000 to be included.

Despite progress in the process, a dissident group from Renamo (self-proclaimed as the Military Junta) is challenging the leadership of the party and the peace agreement and is accused of carrying out attacks targeting security forces and civilians in villages and on some sections of roads in the central region of the country.

The self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta is led by Mariano Nhongo, a former guerrilla leader, who demands better conditions for reintegration and the resignation of the current president of the party, Ossufo Momade, accusing him of having diverted the negotiation process from the ideals of his predecessor, Afonso Dhlakama, a historical leader who died in May 2018.

Source: Lusa