MOZAMBIQUE ELECTIONS: CHAPO STRESSES NEED FOR PEACE

Daniel Chapo, the candidate of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party in the presidential election scheduled for 9 October, on Tuesday warned that, because of the islamist terrorism in parts of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, the country could not yet be considered as at peace. By Club of Mozambique

Speaking at an election rally in Marromeu district, in the central province of Sofala, Chapo promised to bring peace to the entire country. A person cannot be regarded as healthy, if one part of his body is injured, he said.

“Attacking Cabo Delgado is like cutting off my toe”, he added. “The entire body hurts”.

“We need to struggle so that terrorism ends, and there is peace from the Rovuma to the Maputo (the rivers that mark the northern and southern limits of Mozambique)”, declared Chapo “I have suffered from war, and I don’t want to see anybody else go through the same situation. So I shall work so that peace and reconciliation become a reality”.

When he was a five year old child, Chapo was a victim of the war of destabilization waged against Mozambique by the South African apartheid regime, through the Renamo rebels. Chapo and his family were among the many civilians in Sofala kidnapped by Renamo in the early 1980s. The family was held for three years in what was then the Renamo stronghold of Maringue, but managed to escape in 1985. They walked, first to the neighbouring district of Cheringoma, and then on to the town of Dondo, where Chapo was able to resume his primary education.

“I remember the kidnapping and all that I saw”, he told reporters. “But I can’t identify the location of the base where they kept us”.

He noted that Marromeu, located on the south bank of the Zambei river is vulnerable to flooding. But it is also very fertile land, and he promised, if elected, to implant major companies and factories in the district, in addition to the existing sugar mill and plantation.

“We shall work so that Marromeu does not depend solely on the sugar company”, he pledged. “We shall invest in agriculture”.

Meanwhile, Chapo’s main rival, the Renamo leader and presidential candidate Ossufo Momade, is still nowhere to be seen.

The Renamo spokesperson, Marcial Macome, cited in Wednesday’s issue of the independent newsheet “Mediafax”, said that Momade would begin his campaign later this week in the northernmost province of Niassa. He did not specify whether this would be in the provincial capital, Lichinga, or elsewhere in the province. Nor did he give an exact date.

Macome said that Momade’s absence from the start of the campaign was due “solely and exclusively to political missions he is undertaking outside the country”. Macome did not explain the nature of these “political missions” or even in which country he was working.

They were, he said, missions “linked to Renamo’s goals for these elections”. He insisted that the Renamo leader is in good health, and so had not gone abroad to seek medical care.

There is no doubt that Renamo is in deep trouble, with many of its younger members switching their support to the independent presidential candidate, Venancio Mondlane.

Mondlane had wanted to challenge Momade for the leadership of Renamo, but Momade’s supporters were successful in shutting him out of the Renamo congress held in the central town of Alto Molocue in mid-May.

Mondlane then resigned from Renamo and launched his independent presidential bid. Even if Mondlane is unlikely to win, his campaign could well take a large number of votes from Momade.