Africa-Press – Mozambique. Instead of dying out, as Frelimo hoped, the protests are becoming more pointed. Some in Frelimo are now comparing the national protests to the war in Cabo Delgado.
Knocking down the statue of Alberto Chipande yesterday (Friday) in Pemba and dragging it thought the streets is particularly symbolic. (See photo right and video on https://bit.ly/Moz-El-Chip.)
Chipande fired the first shots of the independence war. At age 85 he is still on the Frelimo Political Commission, and had become the most powerful person in Cabo Delgado. For the protesters, he is the symbol of all that is wrong.
And protesters are no longer just blocking streets but are attacking Frelimo headquarters and government offices. Supreme Court Chief Justice Adelino Muchanga said that the Wednesday (4 December) protest in Morrumbala, Zambézia, was the same as the first insurgent attack in Mocimboa da Praia, Cabo Delgado, in 2017. In both cases the local court was burned.
Muchanga may not have noticed, but the protesters have seen that hundreds of peaceful demonstrators have been arrested and charged, but there have been no charges against the police who have killed nearly 100 demonstrators. Courts have become symbols of oppression, and not of justice.
For seven years Frelimo has refused to see that the Cabo Delgado insurgency is about poverty and the taking of resources by the Frelimo elite, and instead keeps saying that it is foreign destabilisation that can be solved by foreign mercenaries. Now Frelimo says the protests are foreign destabilisation.
But young people saw Frelimo’s ability to perpetrate a massive electoral fraud, as reported here daily over more than a year. And the youth saw Frelimo taking political control of elecitions in the same way it has taken control of the economy, ministries and even courts. Thus protests have expanded from being about electoral fraud to being about Freliimo control in general.
Demonstrations in Maputo, Matola and Gaza show clearly that Frelimo has lost many of its traditional supporters, including the middle classes such as doctors, teachers and lawyers.
Supreme Court head Adelino Muchanga is correct – the Cabo Delgado war has spread to the rest of the country. As in Cabo Delgado, it is still possible to negotiate a settlement. But the young people in the streets of Pemba, Morrumbala and Chibuto see they have growing support. Time for Frelimo to enter serious discussions is growing short.
The day, night and early morning were times of terror in the cities of Chibuto and Chókwè, which have been two bulwarks of political intolerance against the opposition in Gaza province. This time the victim was not the opposition but the owner (Frelimo) of the “shock groups” – the gangs of youths used in the elections to physically attack the opposition.
Historically, Chibuto and Chókwè are two districts with high levels of political intolerance against the opposition, always in favour of Frelimo. But on Thursday (yesterday, 5 December), it was a different scenario: young people rebelled against Frelimo itself, using methods they had learned from Frelimo.
The revolt began in Chibuto in the morning, and continued into the night. Until 22.00 Chibuto was under fire. Some rioters were shot by the police. At night, Chibuto hospital was full of people weeping, allegedly because the police had shot their relatives. The police were also accused of launching tear gas into the hospital.
Demonstrators broke into the prison and released about 80 prisoners. The prison was overcrowded, accommodating more people than it had been built for.
In Chibuto, most of the businesses destroyed have links with the Frelimo Party elite. Protestors burnt down the Pamodzi complex , which is believed to belong to the family of former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano. He is a native of Malehice village, in Chibuto district. The complex, including a discoteque, was completely destroyed
A tourist complex belong to Chinese citizens was vandalised because there are rumours that they are partners of Filipe Nyusi.
A Chinese-owned supermarket was attacked and looted because of a supposed link with the Mayor of Chibuto. Because of his fear of the demonstrators, the Mayor had to abandon his home, and flee to the district police command. We learnt that the demonstrators had said it was necessary “to visit the Mayor”.
Some demonstrators looted goods in a local supermarket. A lot of smoke could be seen rising from piles of tyres burning in the middle of the streets.
In early evening, the revolt spread to the city of Chókwè. Two Frelimo Party offices, the city and district committees, were attacked and set on fire.
(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AzA_H5ZYqJggEvC-1vWmXYdZUWWTiw_S/view
and
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B6w_ycoyntkq9tnQ-9Ax-SqjYcHVO2yE/view
Streets were blocked with barricades and burning tyres.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BHxVua68Px4o4jkDp–u90H5ZeHryJ_A/view
and
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BEuZcle-FNshHtwQZRSpgL0Z9dbCLvMC/view
Many shops were vandalised and looted. Only the banks were not looted, but attempts were made to attack them, on the grounds that “they also belong to ‘them’” – leaders of Frelimo.
The police tried to contain the riots during the night and early morning without success. There came a time when the police were unable to continue shooting. They had run out of bullets, and there was an obvious risk that they would be attacked by the demonstrators. The solution was to watch as the rioters looted the shops.
In both Chibuto and Chókwè, the demonstrators informed the district police commands that they would attack particular buildings and the police should not interfere.
The demonstrators intended to vandalise the premises of FIPAG (the state owned water company) in Chókwè. They marched in front of the police command, and told the police they would destroy FIPAG because the prices of water were unbearable. The police tried to disperse them, but this attempt degenerated into chaos, and the rioters began to vandalise private assets.
In Chibuto, the demonstrators warned the police that they would destroy the prison and release the prisoners. If the police tried to stop them, the scenario would be bleak for the police.
The house of the policeman who killed a stallholder no longer exists
Abílio Tovela is a police assistant superintendent in Chibuto. He is known as a fanatical member of Frelimo. It was he who fired the shot that resulted in the death of a young man who was in his stall in the Chibuto central market, located in Mudada neighbourhood.
In response, the demonstrators burnt down the house of this police agent. The house of Abílio Tovela, whose whereabouts are now unknown, no longer exists. The demonstrators looked for him during the night, but without success.
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