Maputo — Ossufo Momade, the leader of Mozambique's main opposition party, Renamo, on Tuesday claimed that former Renamo guerrillas are being "blackmailed'.
In a statement marking the 49th anniversary of Mozambican independence, on 25 June 1975, Momade said that unidentified individuals are making "baseless promises' to the demobilized fighters, with the intention of discrediting the Renamo leadership.
Cited by the independent daily "O Pais', Momade declared "We repudiate any attempt to use politically the suffering of our fighters'.
"We urge our fighters not to accept false promises that call into question our commitment to the DDR', he added. The DDR is the Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration programme for former members of the Renamo militia, which is part of the peace agreement which Momade signed with President Filipe Nyusi in August 2019.
He gave no details of these supposedly "false promises', but spent much of his speech denouncing everything done - or not done - by the government since independence in 1975. Momade claimed that the government "never presented feasible public policies on culture, health, education, social security and access roads. As a result, Mozambique continues to have the worst access roads, including in the cities, particularly in the rainy season, when the country is paralysed'.
"It would be desirable for us today to be celebrating the well-being of our population, and to see our children in decent conditions, with smiles on their faces', he continued. "Unfortunately, our children study under trees, sitting on the ground and without school books'.
Momade failed to mention that, for much of the post-independence period, Renamo waged war against Mozambique, on the instructions first of the Rhodesian regime of Iain Smith, and later of the South African apartheid regime. It was Renamo that, throughout the 1980s and early1990s, was responsible for the destruction of much of the country's health and education network.
Momade read his speech to an audience that included journalists, but refused to take any questions.
