Renamo president says domestic critics are looking for ‘legitimacy’

Renamo President Ossufo Momade said this Sunday that voices critical of his leadership are seeking “legitimacy” to achieve political positions within the main political force of the Mozambican opposition, defending the need for “discipline”.

“We have watched party members march on television and in the courts in search of legitimacy to achieve party political positions. As far as we are concerned, this is a failed attempt to reinvent a wheel that has already been invented,” Ossufo Momade said in the opening speech of the National Assembly. Council of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) in Maputo.

Momade, who has led the party since the death of historic Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama (2018) and whose mandate expired on January 17, has been facing external and internal criticism over perceived inertia in the face of alleged irregularities in local elections in Mozambique last October. , who is also accused of negligence regarding the situation of party guerrillas demobilized in light of the peace agreement.

One of the most critical voices of the party leadership is Venancio Mondlane, a Renamo deputy and former party candidate for the Maputo municipality in the last municipal elections.

Venancio Mondlane, who has already publicly announced his intention to run for the party presidency, recently submitted to the court a precautionary measure seeking the annulment of decisions taken by the current Renamo leader on the grounds that he was out of office. the letter was rejected by the Maputo City Judicial Court.

Mondlane also took another precaution by requesting the appointment of the next party congress, but this matter was not considered because the deputy had reached an agreement with the Renamo leadership to hold the organization’s main meeting between 15 and 16 May.

In his speech, Ossufo Momade rejected the accusations leveled against him, believing that the party has an “external agenda” promoted by some of its members.

“We regret that such members have spent their time and intelligence to attribute electoral fraud to the party and in particular to its president, in such a way that they have forgotten where we came from and where we are going,” the leader stressed, adding that Renamo’s program is clear : “to achieve power and serve the people of Mozambique.”

The meeting of Renamo’s National Council, which precedes the elective congress, was marked by clashes between party guards and a group of young supporters of Venancio Mondlane in the early hours of the day.

The youths were trying to demonstrate outside the Renamo National Council meeting room at the Gloria Hotel in Mozambique’s capital when party guards forcibly ejected them and tore down the banners they were holding in support of Venancio. Mondlan’s candidacy.

In an open letter published on Saturday, Venancio Mondlane, who is not a member of the National Council and who was not invited to the meeting this Sunday, demanded that this body reject the proposed profile of a candidate for the presidency of the party presented by the Political Committee, given that it violates charter

According to Venancio Mondlane, a party member since 2018 and once a political adviser to Ossufo, Renamo’s Political Commission has proposed, among a number of demands, that party members wishing to run for office must have at least 15 years of active service.

Three activists have already announced that they intend to run for the leadership of Renamo in the year when Mozambique will hold general elections, including presidential ones: the brother of the party’s historical leader Elias Dhlakama and former deputy Juliano Picardo, as well as Venancio Mondlane. .

On October 9, Mozambique will hold general elections, including presidential elections.