via Dhlakama claims meeting with government imminent – The Zimbabwean 22 January 2015
Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Mozambique’s former rebel movement Renamo, claimed on Tuesday that a meeting could shortly he held between government and Renamo delegations.
In remarks made at the end of a meeting of the Renamo National Council in the town of Caia, on the south bank of the Zambezi, and broadcast by the independent television station STV, Dhlakama was vague about the details. He said the meeting could be held in Quelimane, Caia or in Maputo. He did not say who would lead the delegations,
This did not stop the newsheet “Mediafax” from printing on its front cover on Wednesday “Dhlakama and Nyusi will negotiate ‘caretaker government’”. In fact, Dhlakama did not so much as mention the name of President Filipe Nyusi.
Dhlakama did, however, say he wanted to hear from the ruling Frelimo Party its position towards his insistent demand for a “caretaker government”, in which both Frelimo and Renamo would appoint ministers, to run the country for the next five years.
Dhlakama does not seem to have been listening. Frelimo categorically rejected the concept of a caretaker government several weeks ago, and Nyusi’s predecessor, Armando Guebuza, described it as an invitation to “anarchy”.
Nyusi appointed his government on Saturday, and swore the ministers and deputy ministers into office on Monday. Any idea that Nyusi will sack this government and opt for a coalition with Renamo instead is wildly unrealistic.
The claim that a government-Renamo meeting is imminent comes only from Dhlakama. So far no government spokesperson has confirmed or denied it.
Once again, Dhlakama threatened that, if Frelimo does not accept a “caretaker government”, then Renamo would create an “autonomous Republic of Central and Northern Mozambique”.
He claimed that this would not be unconstitutional – which suggests that Dhlakama has not read the Constitution, since Article 8 declares that Mozambique is a unitary state. The autonomous bodies envisaged in the constitution are the municipalities (there are currently 53 of these), and not huge regions carved out of the centre and north of the country.
If Frelimo refused to go along with Renamo demands, Dhlakama promised to start appointing and swearing into office his own governors in the northern and central provinces. How such “governors” could possibly function, when they have no money, no staff and no offices, is so far a mystery.
Dhlakama admitted that eventually the Renamo parliamentary deputies, elected last October, could take up their seats in the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, which they are currently boycotting.
He said “the 88 Renamo deputies” (in fact, there are 89) could begin drawing their parliamentary wages, but this would not be enough money to go round the “25 million Mozambicans who voted for Renamo”.
According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), 25 million is the total population of Mozambique. The registered electorate is 10,964,377. According to the results, as announced by the Constitutional Council on 30 December, the number of votes cast for Dhlakama in the presidential election was 1,800,448.
COMMENTS