Maputo, 27 Nov (AIM) – Reports that US President-elect Donald Trump has recognised independent presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane as the winner of Mozambique’s 9 October general election are entirely false, according to the Mozambique chapter of the regional press freedom body, MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa).
Since Tuesday Mozambican social media have carried a video of Trump allegedly recognising Mondlane’s victory. In the video, Trump supposedly says “Mozambicans are sending me messages on Twitter, asking for support. The international community knows that Frelimo lost the elections and Venancio is the legitimate winner. If they want to govern by force, we shall cut off our funding to the Mozambican government”.
MISA’s fact checking service, MISA-check, looked at the video and found that it is a manipulation of a genuine interview that Trump gave to Bloomberg News on 15 October.
During the interview, Trump discussed the US economy, including trade, tariffs, debt, monetary policy, immigration and relations with China and Russia.
At no point did Trump so much as mention Mozambique, Frelimo or Venancio Mondlane.
He could not have mentioned the Mozambican election results, because the preliminary results were not announced by the National Elections Commission (CNE) until 24 October.
(AIM)
Pf/ (209)