Maputo — The mayor of the central Mozambican city of Beira, Daviz Simango, declared on Thursday morning that he will indeed accept nomination as an independent candidate in the November municipal elections, following the decision of his party, the former rebel movement Renamo, to ditch him in favour of Renamo parliamentarian Manuel Pereira.

There had been some doubt as to whether Simango would accept pressure from his Beira supporters to defy the Renamo leadership and stand as an independent. In an interview given to the weekly paper "Magazine Independente", Simango said he would accept nomination, but on Wednesday he was more cautious.

Approached by journalists in Maputo, where he was attending the funeral of Renamo intellectual David Aloni, he declined to commit himself.

"I haven't decided yet", Simango told the independent newsheet "Mediafax", adding that "everything depends on what the citizens of Beira want. My decision must be in line with their will".

He said he did not feel bitter at being jettisoned by the Renamo leadership because, although he had been the Renamo candidate in the 2003 local elections, his job as mayor was to serve all the citizens of Beira, and not just those who are members of Renamo. "I work for the citizens of Beira", he stressed.

But by then the "Renamo Management Commission" that had seized control of the Renamo office in Beira had collected, and sent to the central electoral bodies in Maputo, all the paperwork to support a Simango candidature, including 10,058 signatures in support of the mayor.

A candidate for mayor needs the supporting signatures of one per cent of the municipal electorate. In the case of Beira, that is 2,307 signatures - Simango has more than four times that number.

On Thursday, at Maputo airport, as he waited for the flight back to Beira, Simango confirmed to the independent television station STV that he could not reject "the request of the people", and so would accept their nomination as an independent candidate.

He said that the Renamo leadership had not bothered to inform him that he was no longer the party's candidate. Everything he knew about his removal and the subsequent turmoil within Renamo came from the press. He blamed the crisis on "ambitious people" within the party.

There is no sign that Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama is willing to change his mind. At Aloni's funeral, he told reporters that the decision to run Pereira as the Renamo mayoral candidate in Beira was "irreversible"

He denied any personal responsibility in the crisis, claiming that Pereira "was appointed by the party and not by the President of the Party". He even denied talking personally to Pereira about the matter, although Pereira told reporters a week ago that it was Dhlakama who had nominated him as the candidate.

The death of Aloni from a heart attack on Saturday casts a tragic shadow over the Renamo dispute. Sources within Renamo have told reporters that the day before he died, Aloni had a sharp argument with Dhlakama over the Beira crisis. At a meeting in the Renamo Maputo headquarters, Aloni was reportedly the only person with the courage to stand up to Dhlakama and warn him of the dangers of ditching Simango. He called the decision irrational, and feared that it would hand Beira over to the ruling Frelimo Party.

Dhlakama has never tolerated opposition within Renamo. He is said to have insulted Aloni, and threatened to take unspecified "measures" against him.

The spokesperson of the Renamo election office, Ivone Soares, has denied this highly damaging account of the last meeting between Dhlakama and Aloni. She declared that "at no moment was there a discussion which could have endangered the health of David Aloni".

Dhlakama also denied there had been any argument with Aloni, and dismissed the story as "speculation by journalists". He added "I don't know what caused Aloni's death. I only know he was suffering from high blood pressure".

Meanwhile, in Beira, Simango's supporters, on police advice, decided to call off the demonstration in support of the mayor they had scheduled for Wednesday, and which at first had police authorisation. They also dispersed peacefully on Thursday morning when the police demanded that they leave the Renamo offices.

After a brief period in hiding, the Renamo Sofala provincial and Beira city delegates, Fernando Mbararano and Faque Inacio, both supporters of Pereira, reoccupied the Renamo offices, located in the densely populated neighbourhood of Munhava, and kicked out the "Renamo Management Commission".

But they could only do so because they were accompanied by a large contingent of heavily armed police. There was heavy irony in this - Renamo officials such as Mbararano have for years denounced the Mozambican police force as an instrument used by the government to repress Renamo. Yet now, to enter a Renamo office in a Renamo stronghold, they were forced to rely, not on Renamo members, but on the hated police.

On the STV Thursday lunchtime news, Renamo national spokesperson Fernando Mazanga, had the unenviable task of defending the ditching of Simango. He accused Simango of not being a real Renamo member at all, but of working for the National Convention Party (PCN). This is a small party, founded by Simango's brother, Lutero, which is a member of the Renamo-Electoral Union coalition.

For several years, the PCN has had no independent existence and it has effectively merged with Renamo. Simango insists that he holds a Renamo membership card.

Mazanga accused Simango of not providing jobs for Renamo members, and of preferring PCN members, and members of his own family. He claimed that, if Simango was a loyal Renamo member, he would have accepted that he was no longer the party's candidate, and would have refused nomination as an independent.

Both Mazanga and Mbararano have repeatedly insisted that Pereira was chosen by the Renamo "grass roots". But on the streets of Beira the only grass roots in sight are the ones that support Simango. Asked by STV where the pro-Pereira "grass roots" can be found, Mbararano replied that they would be revealed "in due time".