Quelimane mayor calls for changes in MDM leadership – AIM report

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Quelimane mayor calls for changes in MDM leadership – AIM report

6:45 CAT | 19 Feb 2018

File photo / Manuel de Aráujo

A senior figure in the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), and mayor of the central city of Quelimane, Manuel de Araujo, has called for changes in the party’s top leadership, arguing that it is not functioning.

“There must be a new Political Commission, a new Secretariat and a new Secretary-General of the party”, he declared, in a lengthy interview in the latest issue of the independent weekly “Savana”. He wanted to see “a person who moves, a person who thinks”, as Secretary-General – a sharp criticism of the current holder of that position, Luis Boavida.

Araujo said the main problem is that the Political Commission is not elected by the MDM Congress, but appointed by the Party’s president, Daviz Simango. The MDM has held two congresses, and at both of them Araujo called for the election of the Political Commission. Both times he was defeated.

“It is true that my position did not win, and I respect the power of the majority, but I still say the majority is wrong and one day they will say that I was right”, argued Araujo.

The MDM Congress was held in December, but two months later the MDM still does not have a Political Commission or a Secretariat. The old bodies ceased to exist at the Congress, and Simango has not yet appointed new members to the Political Commission and the Secretariat.

“Currently President Daviz is accumulating everything”, said Araujo. “He’s the President of the Party, he’s the Political Commission and he’s the Secretariat, until the holding of the next meeting of the National Council”.

At the Congress, Araujo stood for the post of chairperson of the National Council but lost. “Savana” suggested this might have been because Simango did not want a critic such as Araujo chairing the council.

“The great problem in Africa is that those in power don’t like to be inspected”, replied Araujo. “This is a disease even in Mozambique, The concept of power we have is the power of a chief”.

Araujo said there are two wings in the MDM, “a conservative wing and a modernising wing. It’s like that in democracy, because if there are no divergent ideas, then there’s no democracy. The conservative wing is that which, for example, doesn’t want the Political Commission, the Secretariat and the provincial, district and municipal delegates to be elected”.

Asked about the MDM’s defeat in the mayoral by-election in the northern city of Nampula, on 24 January, where its candidate, Carlos Saide, came a poor third, Araujo said the party had paid heavily for the way it handled relations with the previous mayor Mahamudo Amurane.

Amurane was elected mayor on the MDM ticket in 2013, but later clashed with the MDM leadership, particularly over corruption. Amurane threw out several city councillors who were MDM members, accusing them of corruption. He accused Simango of acting as “a dictator”, and MDM loyalists called him a “traitor”.

Amurane promised that he would run for a second term as mayor, but not as the MDM candidate. This never happened because Amurane was assassinated on 4 October. Nobody has yet been arrested for this crime.

The MDM “paid the bill” for the dispute with Amurane, said Araujo, “and the party leadership has to recognise that it handled this dossier badly. Recognising a mistake is part of the process of growth. It’s by recognising mistakes that people advance. Otherwise it will be a disaster”.

Araujo claimed that the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) had deliberately damaged the MDM candidate “but the MDM did not lose because of this. It caused its own defeat because of the mistakes it made in handling the Amurane case”.

Had the MDM been “less arrogant”, suggested Araujo, there would have been no by-election because Amurane would still be alive “and so we would have avoided this whole scenario, but there are people who don’t know how to listen”.

Asked precisely who in the MDM is unable to listen, Araujo told the “Savana” journalist “you’re not stupid, you know who I’m talking about”.

Source: AIM