Mozambique: Ossufo Momade campaigns in Gaza – AIM report

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Mozambique: Ossufo Momade campaigns in Gaza – AIM report

12:31 CAT | 07 Oct 2019

Photo: Renamo Moçambique, Facebook

Ossufo Momade, the leader and presidential candidate of Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, on Wednesday embarked on a tour of the southern province of Gaza, long regarded as a bulwark of the ruling Frelimo Party.

According to reports carried by the independent television station STV, Momade’s rallies in general passed off peacefully – unlike the scenes a few days ago when the second opposition candidate, Daviz Simango, of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), was harassed by Frelimo supporters at almost every stage of his Gaza tour.

In Momade’s case, the only serious incident occurred in Mandlakazi district, where the place from which the Renamo leader was due to speak was already occupied by Frelimo supporters.

According to a correspondent from the anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), a clash broke out when a Frelimo member, named Admiro Munguambe, who works at Mandlakazi municipal council, started to insult the Renamo members. They reacted violently, beating Munguambe until the police intervened to rescue him and separate the two sides.

When Momade was able to speak, he denounced the Frelimo attempts to close public roads to Renamo. “These attitudes are not democratic”, he declared. “They think the country is theirs, but it belongs to all of us”.

“You are poor and you have no jobs”, he told the Mandlakazi crowd. “We want work for you, because we see that you are suffering”.

“We want to raise the wages of teachers, nurses, doctors, policemen and all state functionaries”. Momade said. “We are going to create the conditions that they (Frelimo) were unable to create in 44 years of governance”.

In the provincial capital, Xai-Xai, Momade spoke to street vendors, and told them there was no good reason for making a living by selling in the streets, “because this country is rich. We could have companies and factories providing jobs for the people”.

He said he felt sorry for the many people in Gaza who are wearing the red Frelimo T-shirts, “while at home they have no sugar, and no bred, much less any stew to eat”.

Political tensions in Gaza appear to have calmed – and this may be because on two successive days President Filipe Nyusi appealed to his Gaza supporters not to become involved in violence. He couched this in terms of not responding to alleged opposition “provocation”, but the end result seems to have been a climate in which Momade could campaign more or less freely.

Source: AIM