South African Foreign Minister denies Zuma received a request to mediate in Mozambique

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South African Foreign Minister denies Zuma received a request to mediate in Mozambique

8:15 CAT | 11 Feb 2016

Lusa (File) / South Africa's Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana Mashabane.

The South African Minister of Foreign Affairs said on Monday that the South African President had not received any request from Renamo to mediate in the political crisis in Mozambique, contrary to the statements made by Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the country’s largest opposition party.

“We have not received any request to mediate the negotiations, neither by the Mozambican government nor by the opposition,” Maite Nkoana Mashabane told the press, moments after a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mozambique Oldemiro Baloi in Maputo.

South Africa’s foreign minister stressed that her country “recognizes the government identified by the last elections” in Mozambique, adding that any request to mediate the political crisis in the country must come from the ruling party.

“What we know is that in Mozambique there is a constitutionally elected government,” Minister Mashabane said, reiterating that if a member of the Mozambican opposition were to invite her country to mediate a conflict, South Africa must first listen to the “democratically elected” government.

The leader of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), Afonso Dhlakama, claimed in a January 22nd interview with Lusa to have received a positive response in writing from South African President Jacob Zuma and the Catholic Church to his request that they would both mediate in the political crisis in Mozambique.

Afonso Dhlakama justified his invitation to the leader of the ANC (African National Congress) – a party close to Frelimo, Zuma himself having been exiled in Maputo during the apartheid regime, – by explaing that it was a matter that involded South Africa’s own security. He also said that President Zuma’s response to his request came from the South African embassy in Maputo.

“Stability in Mozambique will also help security in South Africa, so I decided to name Zuma,” the opposition leader said, noting that much of the eastern part of South Africa exports its produce through Maputo port.

The Renamo president also made reference to South African investment in Mozambique and the neighbouring country’s imports of gas from Inhambane, by South African oil company Sasol, and of energy from the Cahora Bassa hydroelectric plant in Tete.

“Any conflict in Mozambique affects the South African economy,” Dhlakama stressed, while dismissing the idea of disarming the ??military wing of his party.

Mozambique has seen an escalation of political violence in recent months, with reports of clashes between the military arm of Renamo and the country’s defence and security forces, as well as accusations of abductions and assassinations by both sides.

The Renamo president has not been seen in public since October 9, when police surrounded his residence in Beira in an alleged weapons collection operation, the third serious incident in less than a month involving the opposition leader.

On January 20, the Secretary-General of Renamo, Manuel Bissopo, was shot by unknown persons in the Ponta Gea posh neighbourhood of Beira, Sofala province. His bodyguard died on the spot, but the incident remains unsolved.

Source: Lusa