18 February 2008
Maputo — Mozambique's ruling Frelimo Party has called on all citizens "to use dialogue as the only means to solve problems".
In the aftermath of the serious rioting over fare increases in Maputo on 5 February, and copycat disturbances in several other southern towns, the Frelimo Central Committee Secretary for Propaganda and Mobilisation, Edson Macuacua, told AIM on Monday that Frelimo completely rejects the resort to violence as a means to redress grievances.
The question, he said, had been intensely discussed over the past few days by Frelimo branches and committees in the Maputo urban districts.
"Violence only generates violence", he said. "Our history shows us that dialogue is the best option. We have adequate institutional and legal means through which to solve problems".
"Violence only impoverishes the Mozambican people", he added. "Violence and destruction only damage our efforts to eliminate poverty, which is the central problem affecting all Mozambicans".
The problem with this argument is that the Maputo rioters got what they wanted. The rioters shut the city down, and that evening the government and the Federation of Road Transport Associations (FEMATRO) withdrew the fare increase. On the face of it, the rioters had won.
When AIM put this argument to him, Macuacua disagreed, claiming that the same outcome could have been reached without the resort to violence. He believed there could have been a dialogue over the matter, just as every year the government, the trade unions and the employers hold discussions about increasing the statutory minimum wage.
Macuacua said that, although the state has a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence, the government was restrained in its reaction to the riots. There had been no crackdown, and the government "did not respond to violence with violence", he said.
He urged all Mozambicans to act as "agents of peace and stability". If Mozambique is to beat poverty, "the country must be stable and able to attract investment. Only with economic growth, and an increase in the supply of goods, will we be able to bring down the cost of living".
He said that Frelimo "condemns those who agitate citizens and plan demonstrations which they then call "popular revolts"
Such people, Macuacua claimed, were bent on "sowing anarchy and chaos. These are actions of individuals opposed to peace, who are diverting us from the fight against poverty".
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