Maputo, 9 Dec (AIM) – Mozambique’s fugitive presidential candidate, Venancio Mondlane, claimed on Saturday that there was a plot afoot to assassinate him.
He offered no evidence for this sensational claim, but it was enough to infuriate Mondlane’s dedicated supporters, who once again blocked roads, demanding proof that their leader is still alive.
Mondlane is not even in Mozambique. He is believed to be hiding somewhere in Europe, which would make the supposed assassination plot a headache for European law and order agencies, rather than Mozambican ones.
In the wake of the assassination plot scare, the main roads leading to Maputo were blocked for most of Sunday. Long queues of vehicles built up, including trucks laden with perishable goods heading to Maputo city wholesale markets.
A huge traffic jam developed at Bobole, about 40 kilometres north of Maputo. Attempts by the army and the police to clear the road merely added to the chaos, with vehicles unable to move in either direction.
Other road blocks appeared elsewhere on the main north-south highway (EN1), as well as at Boane, on the road to Eswatini, and Chissibuca, in Inhambane province.
And once again, the demonstrators succeeded in closing the Ressano Garcia border post, the main frontier between Mozambique and South Africa.
No-one has yet worked out how much all this has cost. Companies that depend on retail trade are facing bankruptcy.
Only as night fell did the situation begin to improve, as the demonstrators gradually accepted that Mondlane was still alive.
Worse is to come. Mondlane’s latest broadcast demanded that motorists stop paying tolls to use the roads. Some tollgates affected by the unrest have already stopped collecting tolls, and there are reports that two toll gates have been physically destroyed in the northern province of Nampula.
If Mondlane’s latest instruction is followed all the country’s official toll gates will stop functioning and a vital source of revenue for road maintenance will dry up.
Motorists will still pay tolls – but these will be the unofficial tolls imposed by Mondlane’s supporters, at the illegal check points they regularly set up.
Mondlane himself has condemned the unofficial tolls – but his supporters are highly selective about which parts of his instructions they obey and which they disregard.
(AIM)
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