Clashes between police and demonstrators continue into afternoon

Maputo, 7 Nov (AIM) – Clashes between the Mozambican police and anti-government demonstrators in parts of Maputo continued into Thursday afternoon, but there was no sign of the “march on Maputo” promised by fugitive opposition leader Venancio Mondlane. 

Groups of demonstrators, sometimes a couple of hundred strong, headed towards the city centre, but the police drove them back. Their political sympathies were not in doubt, since many of them were chanting “Venancio! Venancio!”.

But, despite his repeated promises that he would be in the capital for the Thursday marches, there was no sign of Mondlane himself, who is believed to be in hiding in South Africa.

The demonstrators blocked several major roads, including Acordos de Lusaka Avenue, which is the main road from the centre of the city to the airport.

Improvised barricades were thrown up, and demonstrators threw burning tyres into the streets. Thick clouds, from the burning tyres and the repeated volleys of tear gas, hung over parts of the city.

Mondlane had boasted that the “march on Maputo” would be attended by millions and would mark the fall of the government. Nothing of the sort happened.

The danger was not to the government but to private businesses. Despite Mondlane’s call to his followers that they should not target shops, a mob looted the OK furniture store and a mobile phone shop owned by the company Vodacom both in the Praca dos Touros (Bullring Square) in Malhangalene neighbourhood.

The police arrived in time to disperse the looters and prevent damage to other shops in the square.

Very few vehicles or pedestrians risked taking to the Maputo streets on Thursday. Even the normally bustling informal sector had largely closed.

Reports from other major cities, such as Nampula and Beira, suggested that the situation there was calm with no rioting.

(AIM)

Pf/ (300)