Maputo — The political dialogue intended to solve the post-election crisis in Mozambique broke down on Tuesday before it had even started.
President Filipe Nyusi had invited all four candidates in the 9 October presidential election to a meeting in his office - but one of the key figures, independent candidate Venancio Mondlane, was not present.
This was entirely predictable. Mondlane is currently in exile, and says he will not return to Mozambique until he receives guarantees that he will not be arrested.
Several arrest warrants have been issued for Mondlane. The most serious concerns crimes against state security: he is effectively accused of plotting a coup d'etat, which would have happened on 7 November, under cover of the "March on Maputo' which Mondlane had called for.
Mondlane also faces a civil suit for damages running into hundreds of millions of dollars - the cost of repairing the damage caused by the demonstrations he had called.
He communicates via live broadcasts on his Facebook page. In the latest of these, Mondlane accused Nyusi of playing games with the dialogue, because he had called the meeting without responding to the 20 points which Mondlane had put on the agenda.
In a Tuesday afternoon broadcast, Mondlane said "I didn't participate in this debate for a very simple reason. To date I haven't received any answer to my letter. I presented the priorities for a dialogue'.
"One of the questions', he added, "was the possibility of me participating virtually in this debate, but there was no reply. The President of the Republic is playing games with the dialogue'.
Three of the four presidential candidates did attend - namely, Ossufo Momade of Renamo, Lutero Simango of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) and Daniel Chapo of Frelimo. But they were all agreed that without the presence of Mondlane, the dialogue could not continue.
"I think we cannot hold this meeting without the presence of Venancio', said Ossufo Momade.
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Mondlane "is the centre of the problem', he stressed. "It was he who called the demonstrations, and so his absence is dangerous'.
Without Mondlane's presence, "there is nothing we can do', said Momade.
Nyusi proposed that a new date be fixed for the meeting, probably next year "We'll have to find another day for the dialogue', he said. "The political parties represent the people. I should remind you that Venâncio Mondlane has not been expelled from this country'.
Surprisingly, he claimed that he did not know where Mondlane is. The social media rumour mill has placed him in Europe (Holland and Switzerland have been mentioned as possible hide-outs).
Meanwhile, Mondlane has announced a series of measures to continue denouncing the preliminary results announced by the National Elections Commission, which granted victory to Frelimo and Chapo. These measures include parking vehicles in the middle of the Maputo streets as from Wednesday to prevent the circulation of traffic during the morning.
When reporters went onto the streets on Wednesday morning, they found that Mondlane's supporters were not taking him literally - they blocked key roads, but with groups of young men, not with vehicles.
Once again improvised barricades were thrown up, and on the now empty roads demonstrators danced and even played football. Groups of police watched, but by 09.00, they had made no attempt to intervene.
Bus terminals were at a standstill. At one of the city's largest, the Xiquelene terminal, minibus drivers told reporters they would not put their vehicles on the roads, for fear that pro-Mondlane demonstrators might attack and destroy them.
