Maputo — Mozambique's former presidential candidate, Venancio Mondlane, stressed on Tuesday that he is willing to participate in a dialogue with President Daniel Chapo - but Chapo has not yet contacted him.
Mondlane was speaking to reporters on Tuesday afternoon during a visit to patients in Maputo Central Hospital (HCM), shot by the Defence and Security Forces (FDS), during the demonstrations held since October 2024 against the fraudulent results of the general elections.
"I haven't been contacted yet, but if I am contacted, I shall go', said Mondlane, cited by the daily electronic publication, "The Mozambique Times'.
"I have transmitted this message several times during my live broadcasts', he added. He said he had no problem in attending a dialogue with Chapo, since most of the reforms Chapo had mentioned he had been speaking about for years. A frequent opposition claim is that some of the changes proposed in Chapo's investiture speech were plagiarised from Mondlane's election manifesto.
The only problem, Mondlane claimed, concerns Chapo. He said the President is currently "fenced off', and does not want space for a dialogue. For Mondlane, this meant that the government is undemocratic, and is separated from the people, with whom it does not wish to identify.
"There is a formal government, but it is absent from the hearts of the people', he said, comparing the government with his own undoubted popularity. "Today, when I was passing through the Bobole administrative post, in Marracuene district (about 30 kilometres north of Maputo city), thousands of people rapidly appeared around me, in euphoria'.
Mondlane visited the orthopaedic ward of the country's largest health unit, and interacted with about 20 patients, most of whom were young men shot in the legs by the police.
The current political dialogue is between Chapo and the leaders of parties represented in parliament and provincial assemblies. They are Albino Forquilha of Podemos, Ossufo Momade of Renamo, Lutero Simango of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), and Salomao Muchanga of New Democracy (ND).
The reason for excluding Mondlane from this dialogue is that he does not lead a political party. Podemos supported his presidential campaign, but Mondlane never held any position in Podemos.
But there can be little doubt that Mondlane is the most popular opposition politician in the country, and so excluding him from the dialogue is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term.