Maputo, 7 Jul (AIM) – Maputo province “has sufficient resources to provide a decent life for our province”, declared the candidate for Maputo provincial governor from the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), Fatima Mimbire, on Saturday.
She was speaking after a march through the streets of the southern city of Matola, in which she was presented as the MDM candidate for governor by the party’s leader, Lutero Simango.
Simango, who is also the MDM’s candidate for President of the Republic, stressed that his party “is the best bet for the transformation of the country and of the province”.
Cited by the independent daily “O Pais”, he said the MDM “has a clear strategy for reducing the cost of living”, and promised to end corruption, should his party win the general elections scheduled for 9 October.
Mimbire is a journalist by profession and worked for several years at AIM. Recently she has become a prominent activist in Mozambican civil society organisations.
She is not a member of the MDM, but the MDM has made it clear that Party membership is not a pre-condition for running for elected office on the MDM ticket.
In her speech, Mimbire stressed education and demanded that children should no longer be forced to study in the open. She promised that, should she become governor, resources will be mobilised to build more classrooms, and police will protect schools from criminals.
She said parents should no longer be obliged to pay fees for the wages of security guards in public schools.
Mimbire declared that Maputo province should respond to the MDM’s plans to raise production so as to reduce the level of imports from South Africa.
“We have plans for industrialization, the equipping of schools, agricultural production, the technical and professional training of young people and women, so that they can develop the capacity to generate income”, she said. “We are also thinking of lines of financing for young people in a more innovative way”.
Mimbire insisted that standing for election does not mean she has ceased to be a social activist. “I have not abandoned activism, because politics is the highest form of activism”, she said.
(AIM)
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