Mondlane declares commitment to ending violence

Maputo, 26 Mar (AIM) – Former Mozambican presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane has assured his supporters that his Sunday night meeting with President Daniel Chapo was characterised by “good will, politeness, cordiality and civilisation”.

In his latest broadcast over his Facebook page, Mondlane said he was always open to dialogue. Even under Chapo’s predecessor, Filipe Nyusi, “I sent him terms of reference and everybody knows what they are”.

Mondlane stressed that “going into dialogue does not mean abandoning the cause”. He insisted that he has “unequivocal proof” that he won the presidential election held on 9 October.

“I don’t have amnesia, and I know that the Mozambican people also does not suffer from amnesia”, he said. “We won the elections”,

He regarded Chapo as head of the government merely because he was placed there by the Consitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of electoral law.

The Council could have solved the dispute by ordering a recount of the votes, but it refused to do so and chose instead to plunge the country into months of violence,

Rather than ordering a recount, the Council just “adjusted” the numbers submitted by the National Elections Commission (CNE), bringing the claimed total for Chapo down from 70 to 65 per cent.

Neither the Constitutional Council nor Mondlane have published documentary evidence for their competing claims of victory. That evidence existed in the shape of the polling station results sheets (“editais”), but neither side saw fit to publish the result sheets. The original votes have now been destroyed making a reliable reconstitution of the results impossible.

But Mondlane is clearly putting his claims to victory on the back burner. He said he and Chapo had “reached consensus that it is extremely urgent to end all types of violence: the violence that these youths who say they are followers of Venancio are suffering, but also all violence inflicted against the police, against members of the Frelimo Party, and all others who were not in agreement with us”.

He told his supporters that all violent acts against members of the police, including the riot police, or against Frelimo members, must stop. He said Chapo had promised to persuade his followers to make the same commitment to end violence.

Mondlane added that he and Chapo had agreed on the need to provide support for all those who had been injured or who had suffered material losses during the protests.

“We have young people who still have bullets in their bodies, and can’t have them removed, because they can’t pay for treatment”, he said. Others, including police officers, had suffered amputations “and need specialist medical care”.

But the handshake between Chapo and Mondlane has not brought all unrest to an end. For example, the independent television station TV Sucesso reported on Wednesday that roads in the southern province of Gaza have been blocked for the past six days, apparently in protest against exortion by the traffic police.

Transport operators allege that the police are demanding illicit payments of 200 meticais (about three US dollars) from each vehicle on the roads. The story makes little sense, since by going on strike the minibus drivers are losing much more money than 200 meticais.
(AIM)
Pf/ (540)