Citizens Have the Right Not to Be Poor – Guebuza

20 May 2011

Windhoek — Mozambican President Armando Guebuza declared on Wednesday night in Windhoek that Mozambicans have the right not to be poor.

Speaking at a dinner offered by his Namibian counterpart, Hifikepunye Pohamba, during his two day official visit to Namibia, Guebuza said “we reaffirm once more that that the right not to be poor is our right, it’s a human right”.

Mozambique’s national agenda, he added, is concentrated on the fight against poverty. The road ahead was long and difficult, but nobody would build the country except Mozambicans themselves.

Just as the struggle for Mozambican independence from Portuguese colonial rule was waged by Mozambicans, so today not even Mozambique’s best friends would be able to rebuild the country. “Our friends can give us generous help, which they are doing and we are grateful for this, but it is Mozambicans who have to take the leadership role in their own development”, said Guebuza.

“In order to make poverty history, we shall continue to work hard to consolidate peace and national unity”, he pledged.

For his part, Pohamba stressed that regional integration is a catalyst for accelerated economic growth. To this end, Namibia would continue to promote regional integration projects such as the corridor from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic, from Maputo to the Namibian port of Walvis Bay.

On Thursday morning, Guebuza visited Hangana Seafood, the second largest fisheries processing company in Namibia. The company has the capacity to process 17,000 tonnes of fish a year, which is largely exported to European countries, including Portugal, Spain and Italy.

In the afternoon, Guebuza visited the Nambed diamond mine, in the Karas region. Cooperation in the mining area is particularly important for Mozambique, since Namibia already has a great deal of experience in mining technology and legislation.

On Friday, Guebuza is scheduled to participate in an extraordinary summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Windhoek. The summit is due to analyse the SADC Tribunal, and to assess the degree of implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), signed in February 2009 between Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF, and the two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The political crisis in Madagascar will also be debated.

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