WeeklySA_AdminCLARION CALL: Mozambican opposition leader urges masses to boycott Christmas festivities…
By AIM
Venancio Mondlane on Thursday repeated his threat to cancel this year’s Christmas and New Year holidays, replacing them with yet more street demonstrations intended to bring down the government.
Addressing his followers in a live broadcast transmitted on his Facebook page, Mondlane said “We’re going to lose the festivities, we’re not going to the beach, we’re not going to visit our families, because we are organising this country”.
He said the authorities want to publish the definitive results from the 9 October general elections before the festive season – but that would not stop the demonstrations. “We’re not going to stop! We’re not going to stop!”, he insisted.
He threatened that, if government leaders leave the country for holidays, the demonstrators would seize power. “This year, the leaders will have to stay with the people, because, if they leave, we shall occupy”.
But Mondlane is not in the country. He is issuing his increasingly dictatorial orders from somewhere in Europe, possibly Sweden. One of his reasons for remaining abroad, is that there are warrants out for his arrest, including for crimes against state security.
Nonetheless, Mondlane insisted that he remains willing to enter into a dialogue with Nyusi. “This dialogue could be virtual”, he said. “I am waiting for you, President Nyusi. You know how to locate me”.
Any meeting between the two should be transmitted to the public. “I am available. Everything depends on you”, he declared.
Mondlane said that the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of electoral law should ratify his victory in the presidential election and “recommend to the Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) that it open criminal proceedings against the National Elections Commission (CNE) for falsifying polling station minutes and results sheets”.
He went further, and demanded that the current CNE “be extinguished. It’s been proven that it’s a criminal organisation”.
“We have to be ready for festivities in the streets”, he insisted. “This is the only opportunity we have to organise our country, to cut out this cancer of corruption, swindling and lies”.
One of the country’s most shameless liars is Mondlane himself, who repeatedly promised that he would return to Mozambique to lead a “march on Maputo” on 7 November, but did not show up. He then invented a story that he had received “thousands of emails” from his supporters, telling him to stayaway.
Two state buildings gutted, eight detained – Police
TENSIONS: Tourists trickle in through borders for annual holiday, scores detained and two state buildings gutted amid the continuing protests…
By Mozambican News Agencies
At least eight people were arrested, and two state buildings were destroyed on Friday during demonstrations and stoppages to contest the results of the October elections, Mozambican police authorities said.
At a press conference in Maputo, on the third day of a week of demonstrations called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, the Mozambican police said that a notary’s office and a building belonging to the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) were vandalised and destroyed using homemade bombs.
The figures presented by Republic of Mozambique Police (PRM) spokesman Orlando Mudumane indicate that demonstrators also destroyed two other residences.
Other reports today were that:
• Late this afternoon, Mozambican police used tear gas and gunfire to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who had cut off Lusaka Accords Avenue in the centre of Maputo in protest against the electoral process.
• At around 5:30pm local time (two hours less in Lisbon), the central avenue had been cut off by demonstrators since 8 a.m., so a strong police force, with members of the Rapid Intervention Unit and the canine brigade, momentarily dispersed the demonstrators, who were occupying the road with burning tyres, stones, and containers.
At the time of the police charge, the demonstrators were seated, occupying part of the final stretch of the avenue, which gives access to Maputo’s international airport and hypermarkets.
• Barricades and burning tyres returned to the streets of Maputo this morning, as demonstrators continued to contest the institutional process in the wake of the general elections on 9 October, with those involved only clearing the way for the military to pass through. On Avenida Acordos de Lusaka, in the centre of the Mozambican capital, hundreds took to the streets, burning dozens of tyres and blocking traffic. They claimed that minutes earlier police had taken some of their number to the square next door, on the third consecutive day of protests called by Mondlane.
• The National Migration Service (SENAMI) was reinforcing measures to control movement at the main border crossing in order to ensure the smooth flow of travellers entering and leaving the country during the festive season.
• Last night, rioters took over the streets of Chibuto and Chokwe, the two main urban centres of the southern province of Gaza, long regarded as a stronghold of the ruling Frelimo Party.
But gangs of young men turned against Frelimo and even burned down Frelimo offices. Just as in other parts of the country, roads were blocked and shops were looted. At the time of writing, it is not entirely clear why Frelimo support appears to have evaporated in Chokwe and Chibuto.
The Mozambican police also denounced an alleged plan by the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), which supports Mondlane’s candidacy, to attack and vandalise police units and prisons on Saturday with the aim of ‘seizing military equipment and removing prisoners to join the groups that carry out subversive actions’.
“The Defence and Security Forces [FDS] warn that such premeditated attacks and vandalisation will merit an appropriate reaction under the facts and the law,” Mudumane said.
At least 88 people have died, and 274 have been shot during demonstrations and stoppages to contest the election results since October 21, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Plataforma Eleitoral Decide said on Friday.
According to the report released by the Mozambican electoral monitoring platform, involving other NGOs such as the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD) and Amnesty International, with data up to December 4, there were also 3 450 detainees during this period.
Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane called for a new phase of electoral contestation lasting a week, from December 4 to 11, in ‘all the neighbourhoods’ of Mozambique, with a halt to traffic from 8am to 4pm. ‘All the neighbourhoods are in strong activity,’ said Venâncio Mondlane, who does not recognise the results announced from the general elections on October 9.
The announcement by Mozambique’s National Electoral Commission (CNE) on October 24 of the results of the October 9 elections, in which it awarded victory to Daniel Chapo, supported by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, the party in power since 1975) in the election for President of the Republic, with 70.67% of the votes, triggered popular protests, called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane and which have degenerated into violent clashes with the police.
According to the CNE, Mondlane came second with 20.32%, but the latter does not recognise the results, which must still be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council.
Meanwhile, Juca Bata, spokesperson for the Migration Service in Maputo province, which is home to four of the country’s main crossing points with South Africa and Eswatini – Ressano Garcia, Ponta do Ouro, Goba and Namaacha – highlighted various measures being adopted.
“In addition to the migration and customs personnel, we have reinforced the police contingent to calm and eliminate any type of disturbance to order,” he said. He assured that during the upcoming festive season, advanced posts to facilitate the processing of documents will be activated at Km 7 on the Lebombo border on the South African side and at Km 4 on the Mozambican side.
Customs and Immigration personnel from both countries will be working at these one-stop locations, to ease migration movement and customs clearance of goods.
“From December 18th, Km 7 on the South African side will be active and for the return movements will occur from 1st to 4th January, with Km 4 in Mozambique being activated,” Bata explained.
Opening hours at Ponta do Ouro – normally from 7am to 5pm – will be extended to 6am to 6pm. in order to facilitate passage.
Data from the last 24 hours indicate increased movement at three border crossings after the demonstrations. Ressano Garcia handled 6 000 travellers, with 2 447 entries and 3 485 exits; 497 people passed through Namaacha, 287 through Goba and 720 through Ponta do Ouro.
The immigration authorities explain that these numbers do not yet reflect the traffic usual at this time of year, which is usually in the range 10 000 to 15 000 people per day. – Lusa/Noticias/AIM
