– Venâncio Mondlane spoke to hundreds of thousands of people in a live broadcast on Facebook from his hideout
– Demonstrators took over the capital, Maputo, after the announcement of the election results, forcing the closure of several roads, including the main road crossing into South Africa
By Sheila Nhancale
Maputo (MOZ TIMES) – Post-election violence has increased in Mozambique with the announcement of the results of the elections of 9 October which confirm the landslide victory of FRELIMO and its presidential candidate, Daniel Chapo.
Thousands of people, particularly youths from the outlying neighbourhoods of Maputo, went onto the streets to demonstrate against the results which had just been announced by the National Elections Commission (CNE). The police was called upon to repel the demonstrations, but was unable to hold back the popular fury.
The demonstrations continued into the night in several places. Images of tyres burning in the streets, the removal and destruction of flags of the ruling Frelimo Party, and attacks on vehicles circulating in the streets went viral on social media. The main border post between Mozambique and South Africa was forced to close temporarily due to violence in the frontier town of Ressano Garcia, according to an immigration official stationed there.
No balance sheet of the demonstrations has yet been drawn up, but the demonstrators destroyed a great deal of public and private property, despite the appeals made by Mondlane not to destroy or loot shops.
The demonstration was called by the presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, after the official results gave him the position of runner-up in the elections, with about 20 per cent of the votes nationally. But Mondlane rejects the results, on the grounds that they were marred by election fraud.
Groups of domestic and international election observers confirm cases of fraud. The European Union Election Observation Mission specifically mentioned cases of ballot box stuffing that its observers had witnessed in six of the 11 provincial constituencies.
Speech from the hideout
Mondlane made his first speech after the announcement of the official election results, on Thursday night. He rejected the results declared by the National Elections Commission, and called on his supporters to continue “demonstrations to repudiate the election fraud”. The speech was broadcast live to more than 100,000 people, and within four hours it had been watched by over a million people.
Mondlane introduced his speech by telling his viewers that he is in a hideout, because his life is in danger. He then said he rejects the results presented by the National Elections Commission because “they are absurdly false, adulterated, and do not reflect the will of the people”.
Mondlane then called on his supporters to step up the demonstrations, claiming that all revolutions imply consenting to sacrifices. He compared the demonstrations by his supporters to the National Liberation Struggle waged by Frelimo in the 1960s and the civil war started by Renamo after the independence of Mozambique.
“Now we shall step up the demonstrations. Tomorrow (Friday) we shall intensify them still further. The neighbourhoods that have not taken to the streets today, let them all go onto the streets now. Let’s go out with our placards, let’s go onto the streets, all the streets, in all the neighbourhoods, all the districts, all the provincial capitals”, declared Mondlane.
This Thursday’s demonstrations began in the outlying neighbourhoods, without a specific gathering point. Mondlane said this is a strategy which should continue, to avoid police repression. But he also gave orders to his supporters to defend themselves against police attacks, calling this “legitimate defence”.
Mondlane threatened to take to the International Criminal Court those who had given orders to the police to use live ammunition against the demonstrators. At the same time, he urged police agents not to obey illegal orders to attack and to kill demonstrators.
“Tomorrow (Friday) we shall complete our second stage, we shall see whether to pause on Saturday, to announce the third stage later, in the event that the Frelimo government does not want to yield to the truth, does not want to recognise that it is committing crimes against the people, that it has stolen from the people, does not want to recognise that it should carry out the people’s will”, he declared.
Dialogue conditional
Despite the tough speech, the opposition leader said he is available for a dialogue with Frelimo to end the post-election violence. He made “restoring the people’s will” a condition for such a dialogue.
“We are open to dialogue. That’s why, when we had the real results, I said I had set up a Commission, which was for governance transition, to speak with the Frelimo Party regime, so that we can begin to see how to make a transition of power peacefully. We are willing to sit at a negotiating table”, he said.
“But we have several red lines in this dialogue”, Mondlane added. “One of the questions that we want, the fundamental question, is that we want the restoration of the people’s will. We are making all manner of sacrifices for the cause of our people, who are suffering, our people who are demanding what was stolen from them, our people who are saying ‘we didn’t vote for this party, we didn’t vote for this candidate’. We are making all kinds of sacrifices precisely because of this will. What we want is that what was stolen from the people, the vote that the people deposited, should be respected”, he explained.
The Catholic Bishops of Mozambique have proposed a dialogue to end the post-election violence, and have suggested the possibility of setting up a Government of National Unity. In the past, the Catholic Church was important in the negotiations for a Peace Agreement between Renamo and the Frelimo Government to end the civil war in Mozambique.
Losses for the economy
The demonstrations are causing enormous economic losses. For example, some commercial banks, including ABSA, have warned their clients that they will not open their branches on Friday, 25 October, the second day scheduled for popular protests.
The Confederation of Mozambican Business Associations (CTA), the largest economic grouping in Mozambique, in a statement issued on Wednesday, estimated at 1.4 billion meticais the losses caused by the stoppage of activities last Monday.
President Filipe Nyusi spoke to the nation on Wednesday, urging an end to the demonstrations, but this was not enough to prevent thousands of people going back to the streets on Thursday. On Friday, continued demonstrations are forecast, with a possible spread to other parts of the country (SN).
