6 December 2007
Maputo — The Mozambican government on Thursday denied the repeated opposition claim that it discriminates against fighters of the former rebel movement Renamo who suffered disabilities during the war of destabilisation.
An article in the Mozambican constitution stipulates "the state shall ensure special protection for those who were disabled during the armed conflict that ended with the General Peace Agreement of 1992". During Thursday's debate on the government's draft plan and budget for 2008 Renamo deputies alleged that the government was in violation of this article.
The Minister for Women's Affairs and Social Welfare, Virgilia Matabele, pointed out that the government had been assisting the Renamo disabled for many years before that article was placed in the constitution in 2004.
She said that in 1994, despite the fact that the Renamo disabled had never made any contributions to social security, the government decided "to accept responsibility for them. bearing in mind the circumstances which led to their condition, and considering that on their own they would be unable to manage their lives normally".
So the government passed a decree in June 1994, under which the Renamo disabled were granted pensions on exactly the same terms as disabled soldiers from the government's own armed forces (FAM/FPLM).
There was no "differential treatment" depending on which army the disabled fighters had once belonged to. "There is no discrimination in the care given to these groups", said Matabele, "and it is untrue to say they are not receiving their pensions".
Renamo deputies also repeatedly claimed that the government discriminates against the central province of Zambezia. Finance Minister Manuel Chang retorted that all provinces are treated on a footing of equality, and that the budget for Zambezia this year has in fact risen by 9.4 per cent.
Deputies could only conclude otherwise if they got their sums wrong by failing to include the budget for all the Zambezia districts as well as for the provincial government itself.
A Frelimo deputy from Zambezia, Damiao Jose, gave a much tougher response. He pointed out that Zambezia's poverty is largely due to the destruction wreaked on the province by Renamo during the war.
"Why do they complain of the difficulties in Zambezia ? They forget that they are the ones responsible !", he exclaimed. He suggested comparing the state of Zambezia immediately after independence, with the state of the province after the "democratic destructions" imposed by Renamo, and the recovering province of today.
"We are accustomed to the attitudes of those who never joined forces with Mozambicans to build the country with their own hands, efforts and brains", declared the deputy head of the Frelimo parliamentary group, Margarida Talapa. "Just as yesterday they opted to destroy the country, today they choose time-wasting manoeuvres top obstruct the government's efforts".
"This is the parliamentary opposition we have", she said, "which does not collaborate and does not help the executive undertake its activities in favour of our people. But it's the same opposition which is first in line to demand benefits, and, although they never vote in favour of a plan or budget, they seek audiences with members of the government to make personal requests".
And when Renamo deputies fall ill, Talapa added, "they go to the hospitals which yesterday they destroyed, and which today are being rehabilitated by the Frelimo government".
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