29 December 2007
Maputo — President Armando Guebuza on Thursday warned that Mozambicans need to work still harder in order to eradicate the poverty that still affects the majority of the country's people.
Speaking at the traditional end-of-year meting with representatives of Mozambican living in the diaspora, Guebuza said that some people might think he was calling them lazy, but he insisted that only work can do away with poverty.
"A lot has been done", he admitted, "but it is not sufficient. We have to make the necessary sacrifices, because talking for talking's sake does not solve the problem".
Mozambique has rich soils, said Guebuza, and there was no justification for people going short of maize "just because we are not growing enough. So more commitment to work is needed".
"The secret lies in each one of us", he said. "Each of us must ask - am I doing enough to defeat poverty ? But you must first believe that you are capable of doing it. You have to make the effort believing in your abilities".
Guebuza recognized that Mozambicans abroad are working both for themselves and for their country, sending back remittances which showed that they had never forgotten their country.
Speaking on behalf of the emigrants, Amina Manganhela, complained of continuing difficulties with visas, and problems in the issuing of Mozambican passports and identity cards in the country's embassies and consulates.
She said the migrants were also concerned at the large number of HIV-positive Mozambicans abroad who are thrown out of their jobs when their employers learn of their condition. When they return to Mozambique, she claimed, they do not receive the necessary assistance.
"We are also concerned with the increasing number of minors recruited for a dishonourable life abroad", she said, a clear reference to the trafficking of children for prostitution in South Africa.
About 70 delegates were present at the meeting, representing Mozambican communities in South Africa, Angola, Swaziland, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Portugal.
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