Nampula councillors declare support for Frelimo

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Nampula councillors declare support for Frelimo

11:29 CAT | 17 Jan 2018

O País (File photo) / For illustration purposes only

Four senior city councillors in the northern Mozambican municipality of Nampula on Tuesday declared their support for Amisse Cololo, the candidate of the ruling Frelimo Party in the mayoral by-election due to be held on 24 January.

All four were appointed by the previous mayor, Mahamudo Amurane, who was assassinated on 4 October.

They are: Faizal Ibramugy, head of the office of the Nampula mayor, and appointed to that position by Amurane in 2014; Francisco Manhica, the councillor for finance and planning; Reinaldo Pinto, the councillor for public works and sanitation; and Jacinto Luciano, the managing director of the Nampula Municipal Sanitation Company.

Interviewed by the independent television station STV, the four said they regarded Cololo as the candidate best placed to continue the work of Amurane to modernise and develop the city. They urged those voters who want to see Amurane’s work preserved and valued to switch their support to the Frelimo candidate.

They said they were fully in agreement with Amurane’s widow, who has also endorsed Cololo.

The Councillors attacked other candidates (whom they did not name) for their unrealistic promises. One claimed that he would remove the garbage piling up in Nampula’s streets within a week of being elected – but Jacinto Luciano pointed out that this would be quite impossible.

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Since the murder of Amurane, some of the municipal bank accounts have been frozen and there is no money available to repair the trucks and other machines used in garbage collection. It would thus take a lot longer than a week to deal with the accumulating rubbish.

Supporters of the current interim mayor, Americo da Costa Iemenle, from the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), claim that garbage collection is being sabotaged by the councillors loyal to Amurane, an accusation categorically denied by Luciano.

The real problem is that the city was plunged into chaos after Amurane’s death. In quick succession two interim mayors, Manuel Tocova and Costa Iemenle, tried to remake the city council in their own image, by sacking many of Amurane’s team. But the courts ruled that this was illegal, and the end result was the freezing of city bank accounts.

Amurane was elected mayor in 2013 on the MDM ticket, but last year saw a bitter clash between Amurane and the MDM leadership, whom Amurane accused of colluding with corruption. Insults flew between the two camps, with Amurane calling MDM leader Davis Simango “a dictator”, while Simango’s supporters called Amurane a “traitor”.

Despite this, the current MDM candidate for mayor, Carlos Saide, insists that he is following in Amurane’s footsteps, and intends to continue his work.

The MDM points out that, since elections in all municipalities, including Nampula, will be held in October, whoever is elected on 24 January will only have a few months to achieve anything. For Saide, this means that promises made by Frelimo or by the main opposition party, the rebel movement Renamo, simply cannot be implemented. But the MDM, he claims, will just pick up where Amurane left off, implementing the same election manifesto as he late mayor.

Source: AIM