Renamo Rejects Government Programme

Parliamentary deputies of Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, on Tuesday insisted that the government should outlaw branches set up by the ruling Frelimo Party inside state institutions.

This patently unrealistic demand was one of the major reasons given by Renamo for rejecting the government's five year programme, for 2010-2014, currently under debate in the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.

Thus Renamo members of the Assembly's Social Affairs Commission even claimed that it is because of Frelimo branches inside the state apparatus that citizens experience "acts of discrimination, exclusion and intimidation".

The Renamo minority on the Plan and Budget commission claimed that the Frelimo branches within the state are "a serious and crucial matter for the life of Mozambicans".

There is nothing illegal about party branches in ministries or other state bodies. Thus, unless Frelimo willingly disbands these branches, the only way to abolish them would be to change the law. Frelimo has repeatedly pointed out that Renamo is free to set up branches in state bodies - if it has any members there.

In the debate, Saimone Macuiana expanded the Renamo attack to include a claim that nobody is allowed into the state apparatus, unless they first join Frelimo. No evidence for this was offered, and Renamo has never been able to cite examples of individuals who lost their jobs in the state because they failed to join Frelimo.

Macuiana also complained that former fighters from Renamo, who "said no to the communist regime in Mozambique", do not receive the same benefits as veterans of the war for Mozambican independence. He claimed that the government was ignoring an article in the Constitution which speaks of "valuing the sacrifices of those who fought for the liberation of the country, the defence of sovereignty and of democracy".

Because Renamo claims that it fought for democracy, it habitually suggests that this article covers former Renamo fighters - an interpretation that has never been accepted by Frelimo or by the government.

Macuiana also alleged that "many companies linked to Frelimo are exempt from tax", but did not cite a single example.

He thought it a sinister conspiracy that three senior judges (the heads of the Supreme Court, the Administrative Tribunal and the Constitutional Council) are all from the south of the country, and this proved that the government "is turning the judiciary into a Frelimo branch".

A second Renamo deputy, Antonio Timba, claimed that the district development fund, which supports projects to create jobs and boost food production, "only benefits members of Frelimo", and that the community police are just a new version of the people's militias of the one party state.

Yet it was Timba who wanted to return to state control over agricultural marketing. He fulminated against "foreigners" buying up maize and other crops, which he regarded as evidence that "Mozambique is like a country without a government". In other words, Timba believes the government should make it illegal for peasants living in border areas to sell their surplus crops to buyers from Malawi

Source: Allafrica - 2010-03.30