Presidente do município de Quelimane, Manuel de Araújo
Maputo, 1 Apr (AIM) – The mayor of the central Mozambican city of Quelimane, Manuel de Araujo, has intervened in the dispute over the leadership of the main opposition party, Renamo, with a call on the warring factions to calm down and stop tearing Renamo apart.
Araujo is one of the most prominent of Renamo’s elected politicians. In last year’s municipal elections, he was re-elected mayor of Quelimane for a further five year term, despite attempts by the National Elections Commission (CNE) to grant the victory to the ruling Frelimo Party.
There is now a bitter dispute as to whether the current leader of Renamo, Ossufo Momade, should stay in office. The Renamo candidate for Mayor of Maputo, Venancio Mondlane, makes no secret of his desire to oust Momade and to become the Renamo candidate in the presidential election scheduled for 9 October.
In an open letter, widely distributed on Mozambican social media, Araujo warns that only Frelimo can benefit from the public dispute inside Renamo.
“The tone and the insults sadden me”, he wrote. “It no longer seems that we belong to the same house. What’s going on? Have we forgotten that we are the parents of democracy? Have we forgotten that thousands of young people gave their youth and their lives for the democracy we now have? Do we want to throw everything away and give the gold that belongs to us to the bandits?”
Both sides in the dispute are launching insults against each other via the press, Araujo said.
Why was there so much agitation, he asked, “at a time when we have all that we need to remove Frelimo from power?”.
“Who is winning from this playing around?”, he added, Was it Momade? Or Mondlane? Was it Renamo? Or was it really Frelimo?
Araujo wondered why the Renamo party bodies were silent. Why was the Renamo Jurisdictional Council making no attempt to impose order and discipline on the party? And why had the National Council not fixed a date and place for its next meeting which should be held before the Renamo congress scheduled for mid-May?
Araujo urged Momade to stop giving interviews, or at least not to use them to speak about other members of the party. Likewise, the party’s spokesperson, Jose Manteigas, should stop attacking fellow Renamo members, while Venancio Mondlane should “help us draw up a strategy to make Renamo the largest political force in Mozambique and in southern Africa”.
Renamo’s demobilized generals, Araujo added “should refrain from political statements, and come together to design a strategy to train and strengthen the Mozambican Republican army”.
He insisted that they should all leave the election of the future Renamo leadership in the hands of the May congress.
“Right now, there are no winners and no losers”, Araujo stressed. “Fortunately, we have corrected a serious mistake which was the failure to set a date for the Congress in good time. With that mistake corrected, let us refrain from declaring victories and defeats, winners and losers. With this democratic exercise, it is democracy that has won. It is Renamo that has won”.
With this measured intervention, Araujo has put himself in a position to mediate between Momade and Mondlane.
(AIM)
Pf/ (541)
