Road blocks bring Gaza towns to a halt

Maputo, 18 Feb (AIM) – Much of the southern Mozambican province of Gaza came to a standstill on Monday as crowds blocked roads in some of the most densely populated towns and districts, including the provincial capital, Xai-Xai, Chokwe, Chibuto, Chonguene and Bilene.

According to a report on the independent television station STV, people who had gone to the towns to do their shopping found the road blocks prevented them from doing so. They had no option but to turn round and walk home.
Protesters said they were sabotaging the road because of the high cost of living, and the lack of basic social services. But closing down the roads and the shops that depend on them is more likely to increase prices than reduce them.

In Chonguene, the protesters clashed with police who launched tear gas into the crowd, but proved unable to clear the road and ensure that traffic returned to normal.

In Chonguene, 500 new houses built by the government’s Housing Promotion Fund (FFH) were plunged into darkness because a group from the locality of Nhacassene demanded that the electricity company, EDM, cut the power.

There is no electricity in Nhacassene, and so the rioters decided that if they cannot have power, then nor can anyone else in the region. Under threats from the crowd, the EDM staff acquiesced to their demand and cut the power.

Further north, in Inhambane province, there were blockades on the main north-south highway (EN1) at Cumbane and Inharrime, where rioters looted trucks full of rice and cement. No police intervention was reported.

Some of the chaos on the roads is the result of police violence. According to a report in the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”, last Thursday protesters threw up barricades on the N4 motorway linking Maputo to South Africa. The reason given by the protesters was that the police had kidnapped a member of the community known to be a supporter of the Podemos opposition party.

Blockading the road halted traffic to and from the port of Maputo. This was the second interruption to port operations in the space of ten days. The previous week, a barricade in Matola held up 800 trucks from South Africa.

The constant blockades of key roads is delivering further hammer blows against the already weakened Mozambican economy, and there is little sign that the government has any strategy for bringing the situation under control.
(AIM)
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