Renamo threatens “generalised rebellion”

via Renamo threatens “generalised rebellion” – The Zimbabwean 1 April 2015

Ivone Soares, head of the parliamentary group of Mozambique’s former rebel movement Renamo, on Tuesday threatened “generalised rebellion”, if the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, does not pass a Renamo bill setting up “autonomous provinces”.

Speaking at the opening of a parliamentary sitting, Soares claimed the Renamo bill seeks “to avoid threats of social and political instability, or situations of civil disobedience”.

Renamo never mentioned “autonomous provinces” during last year’s election campaign, and not a word on the subject can be found in the Renamo election manifesto. Yet the demand to set up “provincial municipalities” has moved to the top of Renamo’s agenda.

As Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama has made abundantly clear, the purpose of the bill is to create regions of the country that will be run by Renamo, without the need for any new elections. Under the Renamo bill, six central and northern provinces (Sofala, Manica, Zambezia, Tete, Nampula and Niassa) will immediately become “autonomous”, under a “President of the Provincial Council” to be appointed by Dhlakama himself.

Since Renamo will also appoint all the district administrators and heads of administrative posts, the bill simply seeks to throw a legal cloak over a Renamo seizure of vast areas of the country.

Soares justified this proposed upheaval in the Mozambican state with the habitual claim that Renamo was cheated of victory in the 15 October general elections by massive fraud in favour of the ruling Frelimo Party,

She claimed that the real results sheets from the polling stations showed that Dhlakama and Renamo won the elections, but were then “falsified at the polling stations, and in the district and provincial counts”

Soares neglected to mention that the elections were fought on electoral laws that were amended to meet all of Renamo’s demands, and which, at the time, Renamo claimed were proof against any attempt at fraud. One effect of the Renamo amendments was to politicize the electoral apparatus from top to bottom, allowing Renamo to appoint staff in the electoral machinery in the polling stations, in the districts, in the provinces and at central level.

There were literally tens of thousands of Renamo appointees – yet almost none of them detected what Renamo now claims was fraud on a gigantic scale.

Soares claimed that “the people of the centre and the north have continually demonstrated their desire to make justice. They wanted to reclaim their power because it was being usurped once again by Frelimo”.

She claimed that Dhlakama had calmed down these supposedly angry crowds with the promises of “autonomy” in the provinces where he was the most voted candidate in the presidential election.

“This solution is a generous compromise faced with the violence and fraud which have stained the credibility of the elections and of the political institutions of Mozambique”, Soares added.

She claimed the Renamo bill “is a project of the thousands of Mozambicans who do not recognise the victory the electoral bodies granted to Frelimo, because of the scale and gravity of the irregularities”.

The Renamo bill on “provincial municipalities”, she argued “is intended to avoid the worst”. That “worst” would be “the definitive erosion of state institutions and the generalized rebellion of people who recurrently witness the validation of election results without transparency”.

Afonso Dhlakama (who happens to be her uncle) “is the only man capable of calming the spirits of these infuriated people”.

Margarida Talapa, the head of the Frelimo Parliamentary Group, made no mention of the Renamo bill in her speech, but she repeatedly stressed that Mozambique is “one and indivisible”, and warned against the use of force to attain political goals.

“Mozambicans are a hard working and peaceful people”, she said. “They are a people who value national unity, peaceful co-existence and the debate of ideas”.

“For Frelimo, nothing justifies the use of force, violence and bloodshed”, declared Talapa, “because Frelimo has always argued that, whatever the divergences may be, it is dialogue which builds consensus”.

Frelimo is “a genuine democratic party of peace and inclusions”, she added, in a low key speech that avoided any direct attacks on Renamo or Dhlakama.

“We are ready for a frank and open debate”, Talapa said, “in order to incorporate all good proposals, whether they come from inside or outside the walls of this Assembly”.

This, she stressed, was in line with the words of President Filipe Nyusi during his inauguration, when he said “good ideas have no political party colour”.