Maputo — Mozambique's fugitive opposition leader, Venancio Mondlane, has threatened another "two to three months' of anti-government demonstrations.
He was speaking in an interview with the BBC, in which he claimed that pressure from the demonstrations might force the ruling Frelimo Party into negotiations.
But when, in late November, President Filipe Nyusi offered a dialogue with all four of the candidates from the 9 October presidential election, Mondlane was the only one who did not show up. His excuse was that Nyusi had not replied to the 20 agenda points Mondlane had sent him.
But the real reason was almost certainly that he feared arrest the moment he set foot on Mozambican soil. Warrants are out for his arrest, notably for crimes against state security.
Publicly, the government says it does not know where Mondlane is, although it is hard to believe that the Mozambican intelligence service, SISE, is so incompetent that it has failed to keep tabs on Mondlane.
The latest reports suggests that he is in exile in Europe, possibly in Sweden. Since it was given an exclusive interview with Mondlane, the BBC had an excellent opportunity to ask where he is living. But keeping quiet about Mondlane's whereabouts seems to have been a condition for the BBC interview.
Mondlane keeps in contact with his followers through live broadcasts transmitted on his Facebook page. On his latest broadcast, on Monday, he threatened to bring the country to a standstill for a week (from 4 to 11 December).
He called for "total paralysis: cars, buses and other mean of transport must remain parked'. This total shutdown of transport should begin at 08.00 and end at 15.30. If bus and minibus owners heed his call, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for citizens to make their way to their workplaces or schools.
All car owners are expected to place anti-government posters on their vehicles.
Even more alarming, Mondlane has called for the closure of all offices of the ruling Frelimo Party, and a blockade of all border posts and tollgates. Last week, attacks on Frelimo offices led to destruction, including arson, and shootouts between Mondlane's supporters and the police.
Mondlane advised (but did not order) the cancellation of all classes and the cancellation of all flights - so far the airports have not been affected by Mondlane's rioting. But as from Wednesday, he intends to close them down as well. This would be a body-blow to Mozambique's hopes of attracting more airlines, and might kill off the tourism industry.
If Mondlane has his way, there will be no festive season either. This year, there are to be no Christmas or New Year parties, he ordered. He recommended that "promoters should cancel all events until further notice'.
He did not bother to consult the Mozambican Christian Council or the Catholic Church before cancelling Christmas.
Mondlane declared that the demonstrations "need to carry on for longer, maybe two to three months in this same pace. The combination of diplomatic contact protests and international pressure will do it'.
He has rejected the preliminary election results, issued on 24 October by the National Elections Commission (CNE), which granted victory to Frelimo and its presidential candidate Daniel Chapo with an incredible 71 per cent of the vote.
The results do not become definitive until they are validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council, the country's highest body in matters of electoral law. The electoral law sets no deadline for this. So the idea that the Council will issue a ruling before Christmas is more of a hope than a deadline.
Mondlane told the BBC that he could not reveal his whereabouts "for security reasons',
"What is most hurtful to me is not being able to be with the people on the streets, to take part in their fight and in their protests, to lead these demonstrations. This pains me every single day,' he said.
This is a lie. Mondlane had repeatedly promised to return to Maputo in time to lead what a called a "march on Maputo' on 7 November. But on 7 November he was nowhere to be seen, and then claimed that his supporters had told him not to come to Maputo.
Howls of rage about Mondlane's alleged links with Swedish Lutheran churches have hidden the undoubted fact that Mondlane has jumped into bed with Portuguese fascists. When he visited Portugal in July, he met with leaders of the Portuguese far right political party, Chega, even though Chega's links to the fascist regime overthrown 50 years again, means that it is shunned by every other significant force in Portuguese politics.
Chega makes no secret of its belief that countries once ruled by Lisbon should still be part of the Portuguese empire. On 25 April, the 50th anniversary of the overthrow of fascism in Portugal, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the then Prime Minister Antonio Costa, made official apologies to the peoples of the former colonies for the crimes committed by the colonial regime.
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The sole dissenting voice was that of Chega, which raged against Rebelo de Sousa, and demanded that the former colonies should pay compensation to Portugal. Chega accused the President of "betraying Portugal and its history', The Chega deputy president, Diogo Pacheco de Amorim, led the Chega delegation that welcomed Venancio Mondlane. Amorim had vehemently opposed the Portuguese revolution of 1974-75, and sought exile in Spain, then led by another fascist regime, that of Francisco Franco.
In Spain, he was a leader of the Democratic Movement for the Liberation of Portugal (MDLP), a terrorist organization responsible for several bomb attacks against organisations of the left.
He flitted from one far right grouping to another, including the Movement for Independence and National Reconstruction (MIRN), led by Kaulza de Arriaga, who once commanded the Portuguese army in Mozambique, in its failed attempt to crush the liberation movement.
More recently, he has called for Portugal to withdraw from the United Nations, calling the world body "an agency for divulging cultural Marxism'.
Such are Mondlane's friends in Europe.
