
Presidente da República, Daniel Chapo, deposita coroa de flores na Praça dos Heróis
Maputo, 3 Feb (AIM) – The goal of the current Mozambican government is to “lay the foundations for our economic independence”, declared President Daniel Chapo in Maputo on Monday.
Speaking at the commemorations of Mozambican Heroes’ Day, the 56th anniversary of the assassination on 3 February 1969, of the founder and first President of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), Eduardo Mondlane, Chapo said that achieving economic independence “requires the best from us and a rejection of damaging practices such as corruption, nepotism and boot-licking”.
It also required “respect for the dignity of the human person, for fundamental rights and duties, for impartiality, honesty and transparency, for competence in public service or in the management of the public treasury”.
The battle for economic independence “requires the commitment of all of us”, said Chapo. “We are called upon to channel all available forces for the construction of an ever more harmonious Mozambique of political, economic and social stability, capable of offering equal opportunities to all Mozambicans regardless of ethnicity or of political affiliation”.
He stressed his commitment to the political dialogue currently under way between the parties represented in the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. At a later stage, he promised, the dialogue would be expanded to include civil society organisations, private business, professional and academic associations and religious bodies “so that together we can find solutions for the Mozambique we want, as one people and one nation”.
Conspicuously absent, both from the political dialogue, and from the Heroes’ Day ceremonies, was the runner-up in last year’s presidential election, Venancio Mondlane.
Mondlane marked the occasion with a broadcast on social media, in which he demanded that Heroes’ Day be moved from 3 February to 18 March, which he said was the anniversary of the death of Edson da Luz, the county’s most prominent rap artist, better known by his stage name of Azagaia. Mondlane got the date wrong: Azagaia died (of natural causes) on 9 March 2023.
(AIM)
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