Maputo, 30 Aug (AIM) – The Mozambican anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), has accused the ruling Frelimo party of forcing teachers to abandon their work in order to participate in the electoral campaign for the presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections scheduled for 9 October.
According to the CIP Bulletin on the elections, these cases have taken place in several schools that CIP correspondents visited – including, for example, the 16 June General Secondary School, in Mecula district, in the northern province of Niassa, as well as the Macate District Secondary School and Macate Primary School, in the district of the same name, in the central province of Manica.
According to CIP, citing local sources, the teachers are forced to leave their classrooms to support the Frelimo campaign, which means that the pupils are forced to lose lessons for political reasons.
“Many employees of the public administration are forced to leave their jobs to take part in the campaign in favor of Frelimo. The education sector is one of the worst affected because some teachers are forced to join the party’s campaign”, sources say.
When a teacher refuses to follow orders to join the campaign, he may be transferred to remote regions, where the working conditions are more difficult, or may be considered a member of an opposition party.
“In some schools, there was a total absence of teachers, as well as other staff”, noted CIP. “The teachers claim that they have been ordered to join the campaign this week because the head of the central support brigade for Manica province, Esperança Bias (who is also the current chairperson of the Mozambican parliament), is travelling to that district until Saturday. Until we left the site at 1pm, the Macate Secondary School office was closed”, reads the report.
CIP has also found, across the country, that publicly owned vehicles are being used in the Frelimo campaign.
This happens at every election, although the election legislation makes it clear that public assets, including state owned buildings and cars, may not be used in political party election campaigns. As in previous elections, CIP has published the number plates and photographs of some of the vehicles involved.
This is one of the abuses where opposition parties are also guilty. CIP found Renamo using state cars for its campaign in Quelimane, a city where Renamo runs the municipal council, while the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) was doing the same thing in Beira.
(AIM)
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