Maputo — Mozambique's former presidential candidate, Venancio Mondlane, has denied calling for street demonstrations on Monday.
The Mozambican police (PRM) issued a warning on Sunday that citizens should not take part in demonstrations "which call public order into question'.
Doubtless the police were thinking of the protests called by Mondlane following the results of the October 2024 general elections, widely regarded as fraudulent.
But this time Mondlane did not call on his supporters to demonstrate on the streets. Instead, he had urged citizens "to reflect on the country they wish to live in'.
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The context for this "reflection', Mondlane said, was the first anniversary of the murder, on 19 October 2024, of his lawyer, Elvino Dias.
Dias and Paulo Guambe, an election agent for Podemos (Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique) were ambushed and riddled with bullets in a densely populated part of Maputo. The police claim to have made no progress in identifying the killers.
The ceremonies in honour of Dias and Guambe on Sunday coincided with the opening of an office of Mondlane's political party, Anomola (National Alliance for a Free and Autonomous Mozambique) in the Maputo urban municipality of Kamabukwana.
Here Mondlane declared that Elvino Dias is the party's first hero. "Dias is currently the greatest symbol of resistance, the greatest symbol of struggle that Anamola has to offer the people', he added.
Mourners also laid a wreath in memory of Elvino Dias at Maputo's Michafutene cemetery, where he is buried.
While these ceremonies took place without any difficulty, in Dondo district, in the central province of Sofala, the authorities banned a planned Anomala march. Since they had gathered a large number of supporters together, the Anomala officials took advantage of the situation to issue party membership cards.
The report on this event, on Mondlane's Facebook page, did not say how many people were issued with cards at this event.
Meanwhile, the Mozambican Bar Association (OAM) has expressed its dissatisfaction with the fact that the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) still can still show no results from its investigations into the murder of Elvino Dias.
At the time of the assassination, Dias was known to be working on the appeals against election fraud that Mondlane and Podemos intended to submit to the Constitutional Council, the country's highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law.
In a statement marking the anniversary of the murder, the OAM accused the authorities, including the Attorney General's Office (PGR), of "unjustifiable and unacceptable delays', warning that the prolonged institutional silence undermines trust in justice and threatens the foundations of democracy.
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"Until this crime is solved, the moral purity of the justice system will always be questionable. Elvino Dias was killed for the simple fact of fearlessly practicing his noble profession, in a context where attacks on the prerogatives of the legal profession, independence, impartiality, and technical autonomy have been recurrent', reads the OAM statement.
According to the document, this "case is a hateful and criminal attack on the freedom to practice the profession and the rule of law.'
The OAM statement also warned "We could be next, and there is a need for solidarity and unity within the profession.'
The OAM reaffirmed its commitment to "an ethical, high-quality, and modern legal profession, serving society'. The Bar Association paid tribute "to the memory of our colleague, who was an eternal symbol of courage and professional integrity.'
