Protesters block movement near Mozambique’s main Ressano border crossing with South Africa – Lusa report

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Protesters block movement near Mozambique’s main Ressano border crossing with South Africa – Lusa report

2:38 CAT | 13 Nov 2024

Photo: O País

Protesters today occupied National Highway Number 4 near the Ressano Garcia border, blocking movement on the largest land crossing between Mozambique and South Africa, in the first of three days of protests called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane.

The border, about 90 kilometres from Maputo, fully reopened on Saturday, after clashes caused by protesters had restricted movement for about a week. There was increased police presence on the border perimeter, access to which has since early this morning once again been occupied by protesters.

Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane called for a new period of national demonstrations in Mozambique, lasting three days, starting on Wednesday, in all provincial capitals, to protest against the electoral process.

“We will demonstrate at the borders, at the ports and in all 11 provincial capitals (…) We will paralyze all activities so that people will understand that they are tired,” Venâncio Mondlane said in a live broadcast on his official Facebook account, concerning the “fourth stage” of protests against the general elections of October 9.

After street protests that paralyzed the country on October 21, 24 and 25, Mondlane called for a seven-day general strike starting October 31, with nationwide protests and a demonstration culminating in Maputo on Thursday, November 7. This resulted in chaos in the capital, with barricades erected, tires burned, and tear gas fired by the police throughout the day to disperse the protests.

Mondlane asked for the protest to be extended to the country’s ports and borders, and to the transport corridors that connect them, appealing to truck drivers to join: “We are not forcing anyone to join the demonstration. We are passing on the values of the demonstration and whoever wants to join can do so.”

The general commander of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM), Bernardino Rafael, said on Tuesday that “enough” must be said to the demonstrations and strikes, referring to them as “urban terrorism” with the intention of “altering the constitutional order”.

“It is urgent to say enough to the violent demonstrations that tend to sabotage major projects that the country achieved during independence and that are the hope of the next generation,” Rafael declared.

Mozambican businesspeople estimated on Tuesday that the losses caused by ten days of strikes and demonstrations called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane amounted to 24.8 billion meticais (354 million euros), with 151 businesses vandalized.

“With these demonstrations accompanied by the shutdown of economic activity, we found that the trade, logistics and transport sectors were the most affected, with total losses and impact on GDP (Gross Domestic Product) totaling 24.8 billion meticais (354 million euros), which is around 2.2% of our GDP,” declared the president of the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), Agostinho Vuma.

The Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office (PGR) has already opened 208 criminal proceedings to hold accountable the “moral and material” perpetrators of the violence in the post-election demonstrations, the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) announced on Tuesday, holding presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane responsible.

The PGR states that, “within the scope of its constitutional and legal powers”, the PGR “has been instituting legal proceedings, aiming to hold the “moral and material” perpetrators and “accomplices of these acts” criminally accountable.

“To date, 208 criminal proceedings have been initiated, investigating homicides, bodily harm, damages, incitement to collective disobedience, as well as conspiracy or conspiracy to commit crimes against the security of the State and violent alteration of the rule of law,” reads the PGR communique.

Mozambique, and especially Maputo, the capital, have experienced work stoppages and demonstrations called since October 21 by Venâncio Mondlane, who does not recognize the results of the general elections announced by the National Electoral Commission, which gave victory to Daniel Chapo and the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, the ruling party).

Source: Lusa