Maputo — Mozambique's fugitive opposition leader, Venancio Mondlane, on Sunday night claimed that Rwandan troops are being transferred from the northern province of Cabo Delgado to Maputo, to crush demonstrations against fraudulent election results.
But the Rwandan government has categorically denied that it has any troops in Maputo.
Speaking from an undisclosed location (probably in South Africa), Mondlane made his claim during a live broadcast on his Facebook page. He said truckloads of Rwandan troops had left the Cabo Delgado capital, Pemba, and are on their way to Maputo.
The Rwandan government spokesperson, Yolande Makolo, quickly denied this. "That's a lie', she declared on her X account. "There are no Rwandan troops in Maputo'.
"Rwandan security forces are stationed only in Cabo Delgado province, in joint operation with the Mozambican forces against islamist extremists who have terrorized the residents of that province', she said.
There are over 2,000 Rwandan soldiers and police in Cabo Delgado under an agreement between the Mozambican and Rwandan governments. They have played a key role in driving the jihadists out of much of Palma and Mocimboa da Praia districts.
Mondlane also claimed that the European Union is bankrolling the movement of Rwandan troops to Maputo. The EU has yet to reply to this.
Mondlane insisted that, as from Monday, his followers must step up their paralysis of the Mozambican economy in the run-up to a "march on Maputo' on Thursday.
The demonstrations have been quite unable to halt the mining and industrial giants at the heart of the economy. But they have done immense damage to retail trade and to transport. Many of the shops and informal stalls on which many thousands of people depend were closed for at least three days last week.
Mondlane also declared that he does not want to see buses and mini-buses operating in Maputo. The mini-buses (known colloquially as "chapas') would only be tolerated if they were carrying people from the province to the "march on Maputo'.
They would not be allowed to operate within the city limits. This was a clear threat that transport operators going about their normal business might come under attack - even though Mondlane stressed that he had no desire to attack private property.
Demonstrators have, however, been caught on film looting shops and even throwing stones at ambulances. Mondlane claimed that such incidents were the work of "infiltrators'.
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He alleged that the General Commander of the police, Bernadino Rafael, was stationed in Marracuene district, some 30 kilometres north of Maputo, to control the entry of people into the capital.
Certainly, the police intercepted a busload of 47 people in Marracuene heading for Maputo, in the belief that they intended to join Mondlane's march. A lawyer from the Mozambique Bar Association (OAM) investigated, and found that the group had been hired by the mobile phone company Vodacom, to work on digging trenches for its fibre-optic cables.
The police released the group after holding them illegally for a day and a half, but still wanted to send them back to their point of origin, which was the central city of Beira. Even if the 47 had intended to join a march or demonstration, there is nothing illegal about that, and the police had no right to stop them.
Mondlane boasted that on Thursday he would fill all the main avenues in central Maputo with marchers. He has previously stated that he will bring four million people to the march. This is completely impossible, since four million is more than the entire population of Maputo and the neighbouring city of Matola, according to the projections from the 2017 census.
