Maputo — Ossufo Momade, leader of Mozambique's main opposition party, Renamo, on Wednesday accused both central and municipal governments of doing nothing to deal with the problems of flooding in the main cities.

Parts of Maputo and of the neighbouring city of Matola are regularly submerged during the rainy season. This year the flooding has been particularly serious with many thousands of people forced out of their home, and into government-run accommodation centres.

Momade attacked the government during a visit to one of these accommodation centres, where he distributed food and other relief goods to flood victims.

"It's our people who are suffering', he said. "We have brought you some goods. We know that it's not enough, but it will minimize the situation our people are living through'.

"We feel it because every year we have experienced these situations, and the central and local governments never solve these problems', he accused.

But the journalists accompanying Momade were not particularly interested in Renamo's handouts to the flood victims. Instead they began to ask him about the Renamo Congress, scheduled for mid-May.

Momade should have been prepared for this, but instead he brushed the questions aside, telling reporters that he was not going to discuss "the internal situation' of Renamo.

"I would not like to answer questions outside of the programme that has brought us here', he said. "Here we are talking about disasters, and the suffering of our people'.

"You are asking me things which have nothing to do with the purpose of this visit', he declared - and refused to answer any questions about the Congress.

Renamo is currently in the middle of a leadership crisis, as the Renamo candidate for mayor of Maputo in last year's municipal elections, Venancio Mondlane, tries to dethrone Momade.

In an unprecedented move, Mondlane went to court to force Momade to obey Renamo's own statutes, which state that the Renamo Congress should be held every five years.

The Congress that elected Momade President of the party was held in January 2019. His term of office expired on 17 January, and Mondlane argues that all his acts as party leader since then have been illegitimate - a position that the Maputo City Court seemed to agree with.

No longer able to impose his will on Renamo, Momade was forced to accept that a congress will be held in May, which could remove him from office.