- Police sent to restore order, but the situation remains chaotic
- Largest Mozambican Land Border Closed Due to Unrest
By António Cumbane, Noémia Mendes and Ricardo Dias
Maputo (MOZTIMES) – Demonstrators waving placards and Mozambican flags on Wednesday blocked various streets and avenues in Maputo and the neighbouring city of Matola in yet another protest against the results of the general elections held on 9 October.
The presidential candidate supported by the PODEMOS party, Venâncio Mondlane, told his supporters, in a broadcast transmitted on his Facebook page on Tuesday, to abandon their cars in the middle of the road near their workplaces and pick them up again at the end of the working day.
This did not happen, and the city streets did not become improvised car parks. Most of the demonstrators who blocked the roads and threw up barricades were on foot. They prevented all traffic along major thoroughfares, including the N4 highway between Maputo and Matola.
On Eduardo Mondlane Avenue, in central Maputo, a police armoured car knocked down and drove over a woman who was in the middle of a crowd trying to block the road.
The woman suffered serious injuries, and members of the Mozambican Armed Forces (FADM) took her to Maputo Central Hospital.
On the main roads of the city, no vehicles were circulating. On the N4 highway, which links the port of Maputo to the main border with South Africa, demonstrators threw stones at any vehicles that tried to drive past.
There is a dire shortage of public transport, with long queues of hopeful passengers waiting at the bus stops. The drivers of buses and minibuses are reluctant to take their vehicles onto the roads for fear that they will come under attack.
This chaos could last until Friday. Mondlane had decreed closure of the roads for three days.
Despite the demonstrations, banks, ministries and other public institutions were operating normally on Wednesday morning. This was because they opened before 08.00, the time set by Mondlane for the start of the latest demonstration.
Ressano Garcia Border Closed
The Ressano Garcia border, the largest in Mozambique, was closed this morning due to the turbulent situation in the province and city of Maputo, according to the Trans African Concession (TRAC).
"The Lebombo border is at a standstill, with no vehicles able to enter Mozambique due to political unrest in Ressano Garcia," said TRAC, the entity responsible for managing the approximately 70-kilometre stretch connecting the two countries.
The Ressano Garcia border links Mozambique to South Africa by land via National Road No. 4, a key route for exporting South African minerals through the port of Maputo. (AC, NM, RD)
