Opposition Announces New Protests

21 April 2011

Maputo — Mozambique’s main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, has announced that it will hold “peaceful demonstrations” as from next Monday, in order to show its disappointment with the lack of consensus achieved in the talks between Renamo and the ruling Frelimo Party that have been held sporadically since early February.

Cited in Thursday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”, the spokesperson for the Renamo team in the talks, Meque Bras, said that the demonstrations will start in the central city of Beira, and spread across the country.

He claimed that Frelimo has never listened to complaints from other parties, and so it must be “taught by force”.

Despite the reference to force, Bras claimed that what he termed a “popular revolt” would be entirely legal, because Renamo would follow all the legal requirements for holding demonstrations. But he added that they would go ahead, regardless of whether or not they were authorised.

Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama has been threatening to hold nationwide demonstrations ever since Renamo’s defeat in the October 2009 presidential and parliamentary elections, but to date not a single Renamo demonstration has happened.

The demonstrations were also announced in Beira itself by the Renamo Sofala provincial delegate, Manuel Lole.

But other Renamo members in the city, cited in the Maputo daily “Noticias”, said they would have nothing to do with any such demonstrations.

The Frelimo Central Committee Secretary for Mobilisation and Propaganda, Edson Macuacua, said that his party remains committed to dialogue. “For Frelimo, dialogue is the only mechanism for overcoming any difference”, he said. “We call on Mozambicans not to allow themselves to be used, and not to take part in demonstrations that seek to destabilize the country”.

“Peace is a precious resource and a factor for development”, Macuacua added. “We condemn and repudiate vehemently the resort to anti-democratic and unconstitutional mechanisms to change the public order”.

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