Renamo dissidents set up “management committee”

Maputo, 29 Sep (AIM) – A group of demobilised guerrillas from Mozambique’s former rebel movement, Renamo, announced on Monday that they have set up a “management committee” to run the party, and prepare the removal of Renamo president Ossufo Momade.

After a two day meeting in the central city of Chimoio, the spokesperson for the group, Edgar de Jesus Silva, accused Momade and the current Renamo leadership of nepotism and mismanagement.

“The party is excluding most of its members”, Silva claimed. “There is a lot of nepotism and arrogance in the attitudes of the Renamo President”.

He claimed that Momade had appointed one of his own sons to represent Renamo in the current “inclusive national dialogue”. Silva said this was a repeat of what had happened at the Renamo Congress held in 2023 in the central municipality of Alto Molocue, when Momade had supposedly appointed relatives and friends to positions on the party’s national council and political commission.

Silva said the “management commission” would run the party for as long as necessary, but its immediate priority was to organise a meeting of the Renamo National Council. That meeting, he added, would fix a date for a Renamo Congress, which would elect a new Party President to replace Momade.

Silva said the management commission has three members, one from the northern provinces, one from the centre and one from the south. No time limit had been set for its work, which would only end when a new party president took office.

The demobilised guerrillas also protested at the allowances they have received from the government during their demobilisation. They described the amounts they had received as “derisory”, and not enough to buy a basic basket of goods and services for a family.

Despite claiming they had no money, hundreds of the Renamo demobilised made their way to the Chimoio meeting. Silva did not reveal how much the meeting had cost or who had paid for it.

The main political problem for Momade’s opponents is that the Renamo leader has democratic legitimacy. He was first elected to lead the party at a Renamo Congress in 2019, and then re-elected, for a further five year term, at last year’s Congress in Alto Molocue.

Nobody knows who elected the group that is trying to unseat Momade, or whether they really do represent the wishes of the demobilised fighters.
(AIM)
Pf/ (402)