Maputo — Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has warned that the government may face difficulties in paying wages and overtime allowances to teachers and health professionals as a result of the mass demonstrations called by fugitive presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane in order to protest against the allegedly fraudulent results of the general elections held on 9 October.
According to Nyusi, who was speaking on Wednesday to heads of public and private universities on the post-election crisis, by the end of November this year, the government only had managed to collect around 80 percent of what was planned in tax collection for the entire year "and this agitates me because I may not be able to pay teachers and nurses' wages.'
"We don't have a budget from donors as other governments were lucky enough to obtain. For ten years, I was never lucky enough to have a donated budget. I feel good for having proved that we, Mozambicans, can work and survive by doing something. I think we could do more if we had some containment measures', he said.
Nyusi did not mention that, prior to 2016, donors provided hundreds of millions of dollars annually in direct support to the state budget. Donors cut off that support in 2016, when the true scale of the country's largest financial scandal, known as the "hidden debts' became public knowledge.
Nyusi believes that the demonstrations may cause chaos "and if the government doesn't have the capacity to pay wages, there will be no one to blame for the blockades that affect the inflow of revenue.'
"We have a caretaker government. The government has already issued several appeals for the demonstrations to be peaceful and non-violent. We've appealed to all the living forces in society for serenity. Academics are not abandoning us, we are taking initiatives and with concrete ideas', he said.
This is the first time that Nyusi has called his own government a "caretaker government', perhaps acknowledging that its term of office will expire in mid-January.
According to the president, there are experiences that the country should capitalize on, such as the truce that was established during the conflict between former Renamo guerrillas and the Mozambican forces.
"When I spoke to Dhlakama (late leader of Renamo), we made a truce. Such a truce has lasted until today, and we didn't make any formal agreement about it. You won't find any written agreement between the President of the Republic and Renamo. It's an unprecedented case, it was an understanding between us, thinking that the country should move forward and not be held hostage by individuals', he said.
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He said that during the current demonstrations, he has been holding meetings with various entities, "including teachers, bishops of the Catholic Church, diplomats, members of the government, influential people from some corners of the world and I'm planning to meet with the Muslim community.'
"Our forces are often accused of violence, but if we decide just for one day or for three hours to move away from the police or military, I don't know what will become of Mozambique', he said.
