Maputo — Contrary to initial reports, Mozambican Justice Minister Helena Kida will not chair the Commission set up to assess the viability of holding elections to district assemblies in 2024.
The spokesperson for the commission, academic Ismael Mussa, on Thursday told the independent television station, STV, that in reality the commission chairperson is Aguiar Mazula, who today holds no government position, but is a former Minister of Labour, Minister of State Administration and Minister of Defence.
Mussa's claim is strange, because the government decree setting up the Commission, known by the acronym CRED, states unequivocally that it will be led by the Minister of Justice.
But Mussa insisted that the true coordinator of CRED is Aguiar Mazula, and that Helena Kida "participated simply on the day the Commission was formalized at the Prime Minister's office, to present the space where the Commission will undertake its work'.
Mussa was once a member of the main opposition party, Renamo, but in 2009 he defected to the breakaway Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) and was appointed MDM General Secretary. He resigned from this position in April 2011.
He kept his position as an MDM member of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic
In the municipal elections of 2013, Mussa ran as an independent candidate for the post of Mayor of Maputo. He came last out of three candidates, with just 1.59 per cent of the votes.
This political career ensures that Mussa is not trusted by the opposition parties.
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The other members of CRED are not yet publicly known, apart from two ministers who will sit on the Commission ex oficio - the Minister of Economy and Finance (Max Tonela) and the minister whose brief includes local administration (Ana Comoana).
No other members of CRED have yet been appointed. It should include "experienced staff in the area of local governance and public finance', and academics "from the area of public administration, decentralization, and constitutional and administrative law'.
It is already certain that no members of opposition parties will sit on the Commission. Indeed, Renamo, regards CRED as illegitimate, and wants it scrapped.
The Commission has just 15 days to carry out its work over the entire country. This work, according to a report in the independent daily "O Pais', includes "reflecting on the viability of holding district elections in 2024, considering political, administrative, social and financial factors; assessing the implementation of decentralization in the country; and analyzing the territorial coexistence and functional coordination between the bodies of provincial governance, municipal bodies and the bodies of decentralized district governance'.
CRED must then advise the government "on the position to be taken regarding the deepening of decentralization at district level in 2024'.
Doing all this, over the entire country, in just a fortnight seems an impossible task, and just strengthens Renamo's conviction that the government and the ruling Frelimo Party have already decided that district elections will not be held in 2024.
