Mozambique: Several Frelimos may emerge from 11th Congress, analyst says – Deutsche Welle

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Mozambique: Several Frelimos may emerge from 11th Congress, analyst says – Deutsche Welle

2:30 CAT | 10 Oct 2016

DW / Filipe Nyusi (centre), President of Mozambique, with Frelimo members Eliseu Machava and Alberto Chipande

At the opening of the third session of the Frelimo Central Committee, the Mozambican president said that the party could not be a platform to achieve personal ends. Frelimo’s 11th Congress was also one of the discussion topics.

President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique (center), flanked by other members of Frelimo

At the meeting, which began in Matola on Friday and ended on Saturday, members of the ruling party discussed various topics, including the partiy’s 11th Congress, upcoming elections and party discipline.

DW Africa interviewed Mozambican analyst Severino Ngoenha about the Central Committee meeting

DW Africa: Is it coincidence that the Frelimo meeting takes place at a critical moment in economic and political terms?

Severino Ngoenha (SN): We only do extraordinary things when times are also extraordinary. The extraordinary can be positive, but it is usually negative. In Mozambique we are going through an extraordinarily negative period and it is necessary that political parties, governments, etc., take the measures needed to restore the country and the people to a certain normality.

The first thing is that on October 4, we celebrated peace, but we are at war. The war creates disruption at a human level. Added to this, we have a lack of clarity: parliamentary benches are trying to impose their positions, even when they are wrong. Then there are unresolved issues such as the undisclosed debt situation where the international community itself stepped in, leaving us with virtually none of the help we would normally have. And that makes the cost of living more expensive, leading to strikes and national discontent, a tense situation which is reflected in daily life. It puts the country in a situation that demands solutions. So the central committee meeting has been convened to address the extraordinary situations which we are currently experiencing.

DW Africa: In his opening speech, President Filipe Nyusi said that Frelimo could not be seen as a platform for access to power to achieve personal or group purposes. Knowing that Frelimo elites dominate the business world, and even enter into conflicts, can one understand the party leader’s message as a warning?

Zentralkomitee von Regierungspartei FRELIMO in Mosambik (DW/L. Matias) — Frelimo’s Central Committee

SN: More than a warning, it reveals that Mozambican politics has moved from single party to multi-party. In Mozambique, members of Frelimo had no money until the date of the peace agreements and, from one day to the next, they became bankers, shareholders, etc. People no longer join Frelimo for an ideology, because there is no ideology, or for beliefs, because there are no beliefs, but because Frelimo is a provider of opportunities for the comrades.Those who join Frelimo know they will have more opportunities, meaning opportunities to become wealthy. More than warnings, popular complaints and public and civil society criticism are attempting to dissolve the amalgam that has been created. But this criticism has to be made by those who rule before it is made by others, and President Nyusi is part of those who govern; he is probably among those who benefited from this political-economy springboard. Now getting out of it becomes necessary, but it will take years of work.

DW Africa: One of the goals of this special session is to prepare for Frelimo’s 11th Congress of. President Nyusi said in his speech that it was necessary to renew society’s trust in the party as the driving force of the national agenda and building the welfare of Mozambique and Mozambicans. Taking into account the history that you just mentioned, can this trust be regained?

SN: I don’t think the problem is regaining confidence. The people lost confidence in Frelimo, but not only Frelimo; it lost confidence in all politics. And Frelimo has contributed a lot, Renamo has contributed, the international community has contributed, because certain attitudes show that our rulers do not serve anything because the ruler is Washington, New York and other Western capitals. There are fractions within Frelimo, and the next Congress’s job is not to find remedies for minor wounds, it is to try to see what Frelimo must be as regards the national situation. If they are honest and have a serious congress, crockery will get broken. And if necessary, perhaps they will emerge with not just one but with many Frelimos.

Source: Deutsche Welle