Maputo, 16 Sep (AIM) – Venancio Mondlane, the independent candidate in Mozambique’s presidential election scheduled for 9 October, has promised that, if elected, he will build a geology and mining institute in order to promote the employment of Mozambicans in the extractive industry.
Speaking to potential voters in the central Tete city, where he has been working since Saturday, Mondlane also promised to build an institute to train local labour in water management “because it is our right to have clean and healthy drinking water. All Mozambicans must consume properly treated and channeled water.”
“We will renegotiate all contracts with multinationals in order to employ more Mozambicans in the extractive industry. It makes no sense to have a handful of Mozambican people in these industries. We need to train local minds to work in these sectors. It means that we want to promote local employment when we get elected”, he said.
According to Mondlane, the amount of mineral resources that the province of Tete has must first benefit the local people and later benefit the rest of the country.
“It makes no sense. This province continues to be the poorest in the country and the people are only inhaling dust and a lot of poverty. One of the first measures to be implemented in order to include more local people is to transfer the headquarters of the multinationals to the places where the resources are exploited as a way of better controlling the collection of taxes”, he said.
Mondlane also said that he will promote the local import of cars because it “makes no sense for the country to resort to neighboring countries to receive vehicles imported from Japan and other countries. This ends up harming the country in the collection of taxes that remain at the place of entry of the vehicle.”
The solution, he said, is also to fund projects by young entrepreneurs and create the conditions for businesses to develop and provide more jobs for others.
During his march, Mondlane also denounced the arrest of one of his supporters by the Mozambique Police (PRM) for allegedly tearing up propaganda pamphlets of the ruling Frelimo party.
Ad/pf
