Photo: A. Cascais/Deutsche Welle Maputo — Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, on Monday submitted to the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, a bill seeking autonomy for the provinces.
Although Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama has been going from rally to rally in northern and central Mozambique speaking of "autonomous regions", the document submitted by Renamo is entitled "Bill on Provincial Municipalities".
Thus whoever drafted the bill has paid attention to the warning given by constitutional lawyer Gilles Cistac, shortly before his assassination on 3 March, that a bill seeking to create "autonomous regions" would violate the Mozambican constitution.
Cistac, in a television interview, had pointed out that the concept of "region" is simply not to be found in the constitution.
Instead the constitution states that the republic is divided into provinces.
Thus a degree of autonomy for the provinces would not necessarily violate the constitution, or require a constitutional amendment.
As for municipalities, all 53 that exist so far are cities or towns. A second layer of municipalities, known as "povoacoes" ("settlements"), would consist of administrative post headquarters (the administrative post is the rung in the government ladder in between district and locality). No municipality at "povoacao" level has yet been established.
The constitution also states that the law may establish other categories of municipality, higher than cities, or lower than "povoacoes".
Renamo's bid for "autonomy" thus consists of turning the provinces into gigantic municipalities, an idea which has been dismissed as unworkable by several figures in the ruling Frelimo party.
Renamo parliamentary deputy and spokesperson Antonio Muchanga told AIM that the Renamo bill covers six provinces - Manica, Sofala, Tete, Zambezia, Nampula and Niassa. So the six provinces that Renamo claims for itself would gain municipal status, but the four other provinces (Cabo Delgado, Gaza, Inhambane and Maputo) would not. Creating two tiers of provinces, based solely on election results, has no justification in the constitution.
Attempts to obtain more details from Muchanga were fruitless. "You will know more when the text is distributed", he said.
On Monday the Assembly's governing board, its Standing Commission, met to plan the agenda for the forthcoming parliamentary sitting, due to begin on 31 March.
The Commission's spokesperson, Mateus Katupha, said there are 25 items on the agenda. These include the government's five year programme for 2015-2019, the economic and social plan for 2015, and the 2015 state budget.
Normally the annual plan and budget are debated in November or December of the preceding year. But the holding of general elections on 15 October ensured that there could be no further ordinary sessions of the outgoing Assembly in 2014.
Katupha said that the government plan for 2015 envisages a growth rate of 7.5 per cent (0.2 per cent less than the projection for 2014). The government target for the inflation rate is that it should not be higher than 5.1 per cent.
The second opposition party, the Mozambique Democratic Party (MDM), has submitted a bill to separate political parties from the state, thus covering some of the same ground as the current dialogue between Renamo and the government which is deadlocked over precisely this issue.
