Calm returns to the cities, but Mondlane threatens more unrest

Maputo, 10 Nov (AIM) – Mozambique’s fugitive opposition leader, Venancio Mondlane, has threatened further street demonstrations, unless the authorities recognize what he calls “the truth about the elections”.

But so far, the calls for further unrest have fallen on deaf ears. After the rioting and bloodshed of last Thursday, the entire country seems to have gone quiet. There were no demonstrations in Maputo, or any other major city, on Friday or Saturday, nor are any planned for Sunday.

Many of the shops, restaurants and other businesses that closed down during the demonstrations have reopened. Public transport is back on the Maputo streets, as are crowds of pedestrians, as if nothing had happened on Thursday, the day of what Mondlane had billed as the “march on Maputo”.

Speaking from his hideout (believed to be in South Africa), Mondlane has announced a “fourth phase” in the demonstrations. This will come as a surprise to those who believed Mondlane’s earlier promises that the “third phase”, culminating in the “march on Maputo” would being down the government.

Mondlane had billed phase one, on 21 October, as a “national general strike”, but only lasting for one day. Phase two, on 24 and 25 October, was two days of strikes and demonstrations against the general election results, announced by the National Elections Commission (CNE), which the opposition regards as massively fraudulent.

Phase three was a week of demonstrations, from 31 October to 7 November, which was supposed to culminate in “total revolution”, as a march of millions of people swept the ruling Frelimo Party from power.

It did not happen, and the Frelimo government is as much in power now as it was before Mondlane’s march.

Now comes “Phase Four”, but Mondlane said details of what it will entail will only be announced on Monday, 11 October. The weekend was just “a pause” in the demonstrations. Phase Four would be “extremely painful, he menaced – although he had made similar threats on the eve of Phase Three.

Mondlane was speaking, as usual, from an undisclosed location, in a live broadcast transmitted on his Facebook page.

He claimed that the “march on Maputo” had been an enormous success. He said a million and a half people had participated. This was a straightforward lie: at the height of the demonstrations, on Thursday afternoon, there were certainly many thousands of protesters in the Maputo streets, but the turnout was nowhere near a million.

Initially, Mondlane had predicted that four million people would “occupy the city”, but then scaled the figure back to three million, and now to one and a half million.

Mondlane forget that Mozambique has a trustworthy statistics institute, which carries out a population census every ten years. Projections from the latest census, held in 2017, show that the total adult population of Maputo city is only 735,000.

Mondlane wanted his followers to believe that vast numbers of people would travel to the capital from the provinces for the march – but there was no sign of such a huge population movement.

“The regime wants to use the force of arms against the people”, said Mondlane, “it wants to continue assassinating the people, but, as we have seen, there is a very great determination of our people to continue this struggle”.

The unspecified measures of “Phase Four”, he continued, “will be very heavy and tough, because this regime does not respect the people. They are only here to defend their interests and profits”.

Mondlane had already made clear, in previous broadcasts, that “restoring the truth about the elections” means recognising that he had won the presidential election, and that the main political party supporting him. Podemos, had won the parliamentary election.

Mondlane claims he has the evidence to back up these claims in the form of polling station minutes and results sheets – but he has not published any of them.

Mondlane had promised to return to Mozambique to lead the “march on Maputo”. This was a promise that he made repeatedly, only to tear it up on Thursday, claiming that “the people” had told him to stay where he was.
(AIM)
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