16 November 2008
Beira — Is the mayor of Beira, Daviz Simango, a member of Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, or is he not?
When the Renamo National Council met in September it supposedly expelled Simango from the Party's ranks. But no formal Renamo document expelling Simango has ever seen the light of day, and Renamo spokesmen prefer to say that Simango "expelled himself" because of his disobedience in standing as an independent candidate in the coming elections, when the Renamo leadership had already chosen a different candidate, Manuel Pereira.
Under the Renamo statutes, Simango should have had a chance to defend himself before being thrown out. But this never happened, and so it is perhaps not surprising that Simango's supporters in Beira continue to think of themselves as the real Renamo.
When AIM asked Simango whether he is still a member of Renamo, he did not want to reply. "We are talking about the municipal elections, and we shall continue talking about the municipal elections", was his answer.
Certainly Simango has repeatedly said that he wants to govern Beira with a Renamo majority in the Municipal Assembly. His campaign is run by people who until very recently were senior Renamo figures in Beira. The Simango campaign spokesperson, Geraldo Carvalho, for example, used to be the official Renamo spokesperson in the city.
There are just two highly visible campaigns in Beira - that of Simango, and that of the candidate of the ruling Frelimo Party, Lourenco Bulha. The official Renamo campaign of Manuel Pereira could charitably be described as low-profile. He has been quite unable to pull crowds of any size to his campaign events.
On Saturday, Simango marched through the city at the head of a parade that grew ever larger as it approached his campaign headquarters in the densely populated suburb of Munhava. In a journey of more than 10 kilometres, Simango did not utter a word, but simply waved to thousands of his supporters with his fingers raised in a "V for Victory" sign.
At the end of this triumphal parade, Simango told AIM "What we want is that citizens should not stay at home. We want them to turn out in as large a number as possible to the polling stations. We want the municipal citizens to exercise their rights. We want to be elected by the citizens, and so we don't want abstentions".
Simango urged the electoral bodies "to avoid creating unnecessary obstacles". There should be no intimidation of the voters, he stressed.
A pamphlet from the Renamo Youth League circulated in Beira on Friday, calling on the electorate to vote for Pereira, and saying that Simango was thrown out of the party because of his "disrespect for the president (i.e. Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama)", his "rebelliousness", and his "disobedience".
Simango declined to comment on these accusations. "I've no comment to make on this", he said. "The people who wrote that should know what they're writing. I've already had the opportunity to play my role, and now I'm waiting for the rest of the events".
As for the accusations made by Frelimo and by the Sofala provincial government that Simango is claiming credit for work which was carried out by the central government rather than by Beira City Council, he recognised that much of the money for major public works in the city did indeed come from the funds released by the central government - but they were carried out under the leadership of the Council.
"Daviz Simango was elected for a term of office, and all the public works undertaken in Beira were carried out under the leadership of Daviz Simango", he said.
It was certainly true that Beira had benefited greatly from the Local Authority Compensation Fund, which comes from the central state budget, but the city council had also undertaken work based on funds raised from local taxes, such as the tax on vehicles.
The Frelimo Central Committee Secretary for Mobilisation and Propaganda, Edson Macuacua, has warned that Simango's re-election could be disastrous for Beira, because all his proposals would be rejected by the Frelimo and Renamo groups in the Municipal Assembly.
Simango dismissed this argument. "Whether they reject the proposals or not, the questions that should be asked is - who is incompetent, the person who drew up the proposals or the person who rejected them?"
It is by no means certain that the Renamo list for the Municipal Assembly contains names only of people hostile to Simango. It is believed that Simango has supporters among the Renamo members likely to be elected to the Assembly, but they are keeping quiet until the election is over.
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