13 May 2011
Maputo — Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Friday expressed his concern at the fact that many people of active age are more concerned to claim pensions for something they had done in their past rather than dedicate themselves to work.
Speaking at a rally in the Campa administrative post, in Mopeia district, in the central province of Zambezia, Guebuza stressed that “pensions, however high they may be, are not going to solve the problem of poverty”.
These are not old age pensions, but a range of allowances that people believe they are entitled to through their past membership of a particular group, usually military in nature.
Guebuza stressed that only through work will Mozambicans defeat poverty. Young people should not stop working because they are waiting to receive a pension. “Let us work to overcome poverty”, he urged repeatedly.
Guebuza made these remarks after some speakers at the rally claimed some statute or other which they imagined gave them the right to a pension. One was Candido Alvaro, who said he had been a member of the peasant militia known as the naparamas, who had fought alongside the Mozambican army during the war of destabilisation, in Zambezia and the neighbouring province of Nampula.
Alvaro said he was carrying a demand for pensions, and wanted to know who he should give it too. “We fought for democracy”, he claimed – though all the reports from the time suggest that the naparamas were self-defence units formed simply to protect peasant communities against raids by the apartheid backed Renamo rebels. Alvaro said that, at the last count, there were 22,000 naparamas – an absurdly high figure (larger, for instance, than the total number of Renamo guerrillas demobilized at the end of the war).
Alvaro told journalists that the naparamas had fought with bows and arrows, bush knives and spears, but only after being “traditionally vaccinated”, which allowed to storm Renamo bases successfully.
This is true as far as it goes – but Alvaro failed to add that the myth of naparama invulnerability was shattered when the movement’s leader Manuel Antonio was killed by Renamo. His bullet-riddled body dispelled the idea that guns could not harm “vaccinated” naparamas.
The naparamas were active for a couple of years towards the end of the war, but the movement lost momentum after the death of its charismatic leader. The Ministry for Veterans’ Affairs has made it clear that it does not regard the naparamas as war veterans.
Guebuza also told his audience that independence and peace were essentially aimed at allowing all citizens to work the land freely. It was crucial that peace be maintained for nothing could be built through destruction. “To destroy what has been won is gross lack of respect for the people”, he declared.
“We want to ensure that our children never live in an environment of war”, he stressed.
Guebuza was surprised to hear that some people in Campa were going hungry – even though the land is very fertile, producing both food crops (notably rice) and cash crops (such as sesame).
Other people at the rally noted that the access roads to Campa had improved greatly – but the improvements were only made when it was known that Guebuza would be visiting the area.
They also called for a mobile phone mast in Camp to make it easier to contact the district capital, Mopeia Town.
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"You Can’t Fight Poverty With Pensions" – Guebuza