3 October 2008
Maputo — Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, has threatened to sue a catholic radio station in the central city of Beira for carrying a false story about the party's leader, Afonso Dhlakama, reports Friday's issue of the independent weekly "Savana".
A rumour that Dhlakama was to visit Beira on 26 September circulated in the city two days earlier. It caused considerable public interest because Beira citizens wanted to hear from Dhlakama himself why Renamo had decided to expel the mayor of Beira, Daviz Simango, from its ranks.
Nobody from Renamo confirmed or denied the rumour, and on 26 September, the local catholic radio station, Radio Pax, broadcast the story.
In the past Radio Pax has been accused of taking pro-Renamo editorial positions. But this time, Renamo demanded that the radio retract the story. According to one of the radio's news editors, Jose Chirinza, that same afternoon two men contacted the newsroom and demanded to know who had written the story.
The story was untrue, and they warned Chirinza that, if he failed to issue a denial, Renamo would take the radio to court (though it is hard to see what crime the radio had committed).
They accused the radio of working for Simango, and the group supporting his campaign as an independent candidate for mayor. They believed the Simango group had invented the story of Dhlakama's visit in order to claim, when the Renamo leader failed to show up, that he was afraid to set foot in Beira.
So why had Renamo allowed the rumour to spread? The unidentified Renamo envoys told Chirinza that the party's Beira leadership had heard the rumour, but "since it wasn't true, ignored it and did not need to clear up misunderstandings".
The Renamo Beira political delegate, Faque Inacio, told "Savana" that whoever wrote the Radio Pax story "broke journalistic rules for purposes that only he knows". He said Renamo wanted to find out who wrote the story, because "We're going to react, to show the journalist that you can't play about with serious things".
He did not specify exactly what measures Renamo would take against the unknown journalist, because "we still hope that he journalist who wrote the story will apologise".
In fact, the name of the reporter is already public knowledge. He is Francisco Bene, and he is sticking by his story. He told "Savana" that, after the story was broadcast, he spoke with the Renamo Sofala provincial delegate, Fernando Mbararano, who told him that Dhlakama had cancelled the planned visit to Beira. Mbararano gave no reason for the cancellation.
The director of Radio Pax, Justino Cesar, said that recently Renamo had become increasingly violent in Beira, "inventing problems where none exist". He regretted that Renamo had not bothered to contact him about the story, and the threat to sue had been made to his subordinates and not directly to him.
The spokesperson for Simango's campaign, Chico Jose, denied spreading rumours about Dhlakama's movements. If Renamo were a well-organised party, he said, it would not have allowed the speculation to spread unchecked, and then cast the blame on people who had nothing to do with it.
Renamo is finding it increasingly difficult to operate in Beira, as its own supporters refuse to accept the party's ditching of Simango. Mbararano went last week to Goto, a sprawling Beira informal market and tried to hold a meeting there to tell the vendors and their clients that the new Renamo candidate for mayor is parliamentarian Manuel Pereira. But the vendors heckled him, accused him of "betrayal" and refused to allow him to speak.
A similar incident happened a week earlier in the outlying Beira neighbourhood of Manga. This time scuffles broke out between supporters of Simango and of Pereira. Two of Pereira's supporters were injured and taken to Beira Central Hospital. Both incidents were reported on Radio Pax.
Although the municipal election campaign does not officially start until 4 November, Simango and the candidate of the ruling Frelimo Party, Lourenco Bulha, are already mobilizing their supporters, But Pereira is not even in the city - he is currently in Maputo, attending a sitting of the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. Mbararano has blamed the disruption of his meetings on "gangs of anti-social elements acting on the orders of Simango's supporters".
A second weekly, "O Pais", reports that senior Renamo members in Sofala are so disgusted at the party's treatment of Simango that they are resigning and sending their membership cards back to the provincial delegation. This alarmed Simango's supporters who clearly want to take over Renamo, not destroy it.
Chico Jose stressed that Renamo members in Beira "are not angry with the party. They are angry with the attitude of some members of the party, including the leadership".
"Sending membership cards back means divorcing yourselves from the party, and that's not what we want", he exclaimed. "We are members of Renamo and we always will be". The best thing opponents of the current official Renamo line could do was vote for Simango in November, in order to show Dhlakama, Mbararano and Pereira "that we're right. Just that".
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