Mozambique: Patchy response to general strike call

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Mozambique: Patchy response to general strike call

8:30 CAT | 19 Mar 2025

Image: AIM

Former Mozambican presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane called for yet another general strike on Tuesday, supposedly to honour “the true heroes of the people”, but most people ignored the strike call.

Maputo was fairly normal on Tuesday morning. Unlike previous strikes called by Mondlane, there were no gangs of youths blocking the streets, and intimidating motorists, no piles of burning tyres and no barricades.

Schools were mostly open, in sharp contrast to the strikes of November and December when Mondlane succeeded in closing down most of the schools, public and private.

But there was a shortage of public transport in Maputo and the neighbouring city of Matola. Many owners of the minbuses that provide much of the cities’ passenger transport, kept their vehicles off the streets for fear that they might be attacked. But this time nobody was throwing stones at passing vehicles.

Some shopkeepers also refused to open their establishments, well aware of the rioting that had swept through the cities in December.

As of midday, the only violence reported came from the Casa Branca area on the main road between Maputo and Matola, where the police opened fire on crowds with tear gas and live ammunition (despite last week’s warning by Justice Minister Mateus Saize that the police should only use real bullets as a last resort).

In this clash, the police shot at least two people dead, according to the “Decide” Electoral Platform.

The organization also denounced the murder of another Mondlane supporter in Inharrime district, in the southern province of Inhambane. 23 year old Ivo Nhantumbo was found dead “without his genital organs.”

Casa Branca, Maputo, Moçambique. 18.03.2025. #Geração18deMarço pic.twitter.com/GQL3Y8O929

— Alexandre Nhampossa (@AllexandreMZ) March 18, 2025

MORTAL VICTIM 361 AT THE MANIFESTATIONS

What looked like a day of celebration in the “Casabranca” area of Maputo ended in tragedy. According to what was witnessed, the police chased the victim into the neighborhood and shot him. Also in the same neighborhood, the police fired… pic.twitter.com/Q36kJMPkSC

— Plataforma_decide (@PDecide23) March 18, 2025

“Decide” points out that since December, at least 15 of Mondlane’s supporters have been were murdered. During the same period, one senior member of the Frelimo ruling party was also murdered.

The surprise call for a general strike was because Mondlane had ordered the cancellation of the Heroes’ Day celebrations scheduled for Monday, 3 February.

Mondlane, who claims that he won the 9 October presidential election, decreed that Mozambican Heroes will no longer be commemorated on 3 February, the anniversary of the murder in 1969 of Eduardo Mondlane (no relation) the founder and first president of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo).

Instead, he declared that Heroes’ Day would be moved to 18 March, the anniversary of the date in 2023 when the Mozambican police attacked and teargassed peaceful demonstrators who were paying tribute to the country’s foremost rap artist, Edson da Luz (better known by his stage name of Azagaia), who died on 9 March. Mondlane claimed that this event marked the date “when the true revolution began”.

Most people took no notice of Mondlane’s “decree”, and Heroes’ Day ceremonies went ahead as planned in Maputo’s Heroes Square, addressed by President Daniel Chapo. Even if Mondlane did win the presidential election, that would not give him the right to announce public holidays unilaterally, and declare who is, and who is not, a national hero.

After declaring that 3 February can no longer be Heroes’ Day, Mondlane produced his own list of heroes, and occupying the number one spot was none other than Eduardo Mondlane! He was followed by the country’s first president, Samora Machel.

So, despite his undisguised loathing of Frelimo, Venancio Mondlane kept the two key figures in Frelimo history at the top of his list of heroes.

The list also included the victims of death squads, notably Mondlane’s lawyer, Elvino Dias, and the election agent for the Podemos party, Paulo Guambe, who were gunned down in central Maputo on 19 October.

Mondlane also included on his list Mozambique’s foremost poet Jose Craveirinha, outspoken human rights lawyer, Alice Mabota, and two people murdered while investigating enormous bank frauds – investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso, and banking executive Siba-Siba Macuacua.

Source: AIM