|
|
Mozambique: Unity Against Colonialism Then, Against Poverty Now
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
24 June 2007
Posted to the web 25 June 2007
Maputo
Just as yesterday Mozambicans were united in the struggle to overthrow colonial rule, so today they are united in the battle to free the country from poverty, declared President Armando Guebuza on Sunday.
In a message to the nation broadcast on Sunday night, marking the 32nd anniversary of Mozambican independence on 25 June 1975, Guebuza said that, in the two months he had recently spent travelling through all eleven provinces and dozens of the country's 128 districts, he had reached the conclusion that "each of our fellow-countrymen, in the countryside and in the cities, has accepted this struggle against poverty and to redeem our dignity as their own struggle".
From what he had seen and heard across the country, Guebuza was sure that "we are weakening poverty, as shown by the economic and social infrastructures we have been building, the increases in production and productivity, and the changes in attitude and behaviour we have been making".
After independence was won, Mozambicans could look back at the past and talk of "that time when we were still under foreign rule". Guebuza was sure that the day would come when Mozambicans, no longer poor, could look back at the past and talk of "that time when we were still poor".
Poverty, the President added, had worsened the impact of recent natural disasters (such as the severe flooding in the Zambezi valley in January and February)) and the devasting explosions at the military arsenal in the outer Maputo suburb of Malhazine, which left over 100 people dead.
On independence day, Guebuza said, "we reaffirm the role played by national unity, and by the commitment of all of us to regain our sovereignty".
It was also a day "to consolidate our self esteem, the sense of solidarity among Mozambicans, and the will to continue together to build our beautiful Mozambique".
At the same time, it was a day "when we reaffirm our attachment to sublime values such as peace, multi-party democracy, patriotism and the spirit of inclusion".
|
Major tasks lay ahead in the next six months - including Mozambique's preparations to enter the southern Africa free trade area in 2008, the national population census in August, and the implementation of the electoral legislation passed last December.
On the proposal of the National Elections Commission (CNE), Guebuza has fixed the date of 20 December for the country's first electons to provincial assemblies. They will be preceded by a total re-registration of the Mozambican electorate from 20 August to 18 October.
Guebuza urged all Mozambicans "to give the best of yourselves so that these events may be successful".
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2007 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
