Jacob Zuma barred from running in South Africa election
O País
Daviz Simango, president of the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), has dismissed any suggestion of party involvement in the death of Nampula mayor Mahamudo Amurane on Wednesday night, and downplayed accusations on social networks about “internal settling of scores.”
He said he considered the assassination of the Nampula mayor a “macabre and barbaric act”, attributed the “misinformation” to detractors of Mozambique’s third-largest political party.
“The people who are concerned with dismantling the MDM, who are concerned with discrediting the MDM, are the ones spreading misinformation on Amurane’s death,” he said after condemning the killing at a Beira press conference post a meeting of the party’s Political Commission.
Simango, who slammed the Amurane’s murder as “in every way contemptible”, urged police to take “adequate and necessary” steps in the investigation.
“The MDM strongly repudiates this act of brutality, gratuitous aggression and cowardice, and requires that this crime should not go unpunished like other known public crimes,” he said.
Hard blow to the rule of law
Amurane was an MDM member, but had for some time been at odds with the party led by Daviz Simango, who is also the mayor of Beira.
Meanwhile, the Emergency Committee for the Protection of Liberties, which is made up of Mozambican journalists, editors and media experts, said that Amurane’s assassination represented a “serious blow” to the process of consolidating the rule of law and democracy in Mozambique.
“All things considered, the macabre and cowardly act that took Mahamudo Amurane’s life targets all those who express themselves freely, in line with the structuring principles of the Democratic Rule of Law, which our country formally subscribes to, according to the principles consecrated in the Constitution of the Republic of Mozambique,” its statement read.
It too urged that the mayor’s killing be clarified in the shortest possible time and the suspects brought to trial.
“Forgotten” cases
The murder of Mahamudo Amurane follows a number of unsolved murders, notably those of the Franco-Mozambican constitutional lawyer Gillles Cistac, Renamo State Council member Jeremias Pondeca, Judge Dinis Silica, public prosecutor Marcelino Vilanculos and Renamo member of the National Defence and Security Council José Manuel, among others.
Assembly of the Republic deputy Professor José Jaime Macuane, Renamo Secretary General Manuel Bissopo and lawyer and politician Carlos Jeque have also been subjected to attack.
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.