Ossufo Momade warns against forming a new party

Maputo, 23 Feb (AIM) – The leader of Mozambique’s former rebel movement Renamo, Ossufo Momade, has warned Renamo members not to sign any petition seeking to set up a new political party.

He was speaking on Saturday during a visit to the Renamo delegation in Manhica district, about 100 kilometres north of Maputo. He claimed that signatures are being collected by “ill-intentioned people”, in order “to fragment the party”.

Momade urged Renamo members not to support such initiatives and to denounce the individuals involved.

“Nobody can join this”, Momade declared. “Nobody can hand over their signatures. Nobody”.

“Venancio did the same thing”, he claimed. “He used our members for signatures”.

He was presumably referring to the collection of signatures to support the bid by Venancio Mondlane to become President in the 2024 elections. Mondlane had been a senior member of Renamo, but when the Renamo leadership refused to back him, he resigned from the party, and ran an independent campaign for the Presidency.

The refusal to support Mondlane cost Renamo dear. In both the presidential and the parliamentary election, Renamo slipped from second to third position.

Momade described the alleged collection of signatures to set up a rival party as “manoeuvres of internal destabilisation” supposedly reliant on external financing. He did not say where this money is coming from.

“The enemy has many ways of acting”, said Momade, cited by the independent newssheet “Mediafax”.

“They are not alone”, he added. “Frelimo is in there. Somebody is financing this”.

He called for “constant vigilance to preserve the unity and internal organisation of Renamo”.

Last week, the Renamo dissidents collecting signatures said they are called for an extraordinary Renamo Congress, to sack Momade as the Party’s leader.
(AIM)
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