- The former presidential candidate was in Maputo Central Hospital to comfort patients shot during the unrest
By Aurélio Muianga
Maputo (MOZ TIMES) – The former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane said on Tuesday that he has not been contacted for a dialogue with President Daniel Chapo on the solution for peace in Mozambique, but he repeated his willingness to take part in such a dialogue.
Venâncio Mondlane was speaking to reporters on Tuesday afternoon during a visit to patients in Maputo Central Hospital (HCM), shot by the Defence and Security Forces (FDS), during the demonstrations held since October 2024 against the fraudulent results of the general elections.
"I haven’t been contacted yet, but if I am contacted, I shall go”, said Mondlane. “I have transmitted this message several times during my live broadcasts”.
He said he had no problem in attending a dialogue with Chapo, since most of the reforms Chapo had mentioned he had been speaking about for years.
The only problem, he claimed, concerns Chapo, who is currently fenced off, and does not want space for a dialogue. For Mondlane, this meant that the government is undemocratic, and is separated from the people, with whom it does not wish to identify.
“There is a formal government, but it is absent from the hearts of the people”, he said, comparing the government with his own undoubted popularity. “Today, when I was passing through the Bobole administrative post, in Marracuene district (about 30 kilometres north of Maputo city), thousands of people rapidly appeared around me, in euphoria”.
Mondlane visited the orthopaedic ward of the country’s largest health unit, under the watchful eyes of his own security staff, and interacted with about 20 patients, most of whom were young men shot in the legs.
Some of the patients told Mondlane that, despite being currently hospitalised, they will not back down in the struggle for justice. And they repeated the slogan made famous by the country’s best known rap artist, Azagaia, “The People to Power!”
One of the patients argued that reforms to the Mozambican electoral system should include the introduction of electronic voting.
Mondlane thanked the health professionals caring for the patients. “People are in this struggle not for any material or financial benefit, or any kind of promise, but in order to see changes”, he said, admitting that it might only be their children or grandchildren who see such changes.
The presence of Venâncio Mondlane mobilised a large number of medical staff and patients, generating enthusiasm rarely seen during hospital visits.
Since his return to Mozambique from self-imposed exile Mondlane has been visiting the families of those shot by the police in the unrest in Maputo city and province. (AM)
