Africa-Press – Mozambique. Police today launched tear gas in the centre of Maputo to disperse supporters of Venâncio Mondlane who were following the former presidential candidate’s motorcade after his visit to the Public Prosecutor’s Office as part of the proceedings regarding the post-election demonstrations.
The intervention by the Mozambican police took place on Avenida da Guerra Popular, in the centre of Maputo, at around 11:20 a.m., after the politician started a motorcade through the city after leaving the Attorney General’s Office after around two hours’ questioning.
The streets of the capital were once again filled with cries of “Save Mozambique, this country is ours”, as happened during Venâncio Mondlane’s election campaign and in the demonstrations that followed the general elections of October 9. Supporters held up posters of support, as well as the national flag, shouting “Anamalala” (the name of the party).
Venâncio Mondlane waved to his supporters, in his first public appearance in the centre of the capital since returning to the country in January. Police fired tear gas after about 20 minutes, when traffic became heavily congested due to the crowd following him.
Venâncio Mondlane’s security guards removed him from the roof of the vehicle, but shortly afterwards the politician returned outside and continued the march, which broke up after a few minutes, without further incident.
More than two hours earlier, at the entrance to the PGR, Venâncio Mondlane said that he has already been the subject of more than 30 legal proceedings in connection with the post-election protests.
“I lost count, didn’t I? Because I think it’s a little over 30. So, I’m not really sure. There are so many, I’m not sure anymore,” said the former presidential candidate, questioned upon arriving at the PGR in Maputo under heavy police presence.
“I see it as a very urgent need for the PGR to try to look at the problem that occurred during the electoral and post-election period in a unilateral manner. In other words, an attempt to desperately try to gather evidence on purpose and off purpose to try to focus the entire issue of the post-election crisis on Venâncio, when we know that this is a multifaceted issue, that it involves the justice bodies, electoral bodies, and the police themselves, who committed atrocities of all kinds,” he stated.
He also said that the PGR, “as the guardian of legality” and if it “wanted to fulfil this role”, would have to analyze everything that happened during the several months of social unrest and protests against the process surrounding the general elections of October 9, in which around 400 people died, in addition to widespread destruction throughout the country.
“But we, up until now, have no news with evidence of the security and defence forces and their officers who have also been prosecuted, heard and questioned in this process,” the former presidential candidate, who does not recognize the election results, said.
Today, Mondlane returned to the PGR to be heard, after having been in the same place on March 11 to give statements for more than 10 hours, leaving with an Identity and Residence Certificate, a process in which he is targeted for inciting violence in the post-election demonstrations.
Several avenues and streets in the centre of Maputo, in the vicinity of the PGR, were closed to traffic this morning, with a strong police reinforcement, several hours before Venâncio Mondlane was expected to arrive for a hearing.
Lusa has confirmed that, since the early hours of the morning, traffic on several surrounding roads leading to Avenida Vladimir Lenine, the headquarters of the PGR, has been closed, with the presence of dozens of heavily armed members of the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR).
“This apparatus, I mean, is incredible, isn’t it? The kind of honour they’ve given me, it’s impressive, isn’t it? I always have this privilege of having unusual police protection, don’t I? Even the presidential escort, I’m talking about the presidential escort of the UIR, has never had a privilege of such magnitude,” Mondlane commented.
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