Africa-Press – Mozambique. At the beginning of August this year, around a thousand demobilised Renamo guerrillas taking part in the official Demilitarisation, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) process in Dondo district, Sofala province, alleged that they had been not received their pensions for about six months.
When these combatants were demobilised during the second half of last year, a monthly subsidy, supported by the United Nations (UN), was fixed according to their rank, which they would receive for one year while the government dealt with the pension process. At the end of the one-year period, they would automatically start to receive lifelong state pensions. But they only received six months’ worth of grants.
About ten days ago, the government and the UN jointly promised that the subsidies would be paid, and the president of Renamo, Ossufo Momade, who last week was working in Sofala, assured the demobilised soldiers that, “the subsidies will be paid soon, and your lifetime pensions will start to be paid from January, 2022”.
The promise was made in Macorococho administrative post, Nhamatanda district, in Sofala, where hundreds of former Renamo guerrillas took up residence after the 16-year war.
Ossufo Momade took the opportunity to urge Renamo guerrillas demobilised under the General Peace Agreement (AGP) who do not yet have pensions to regularise their position.
“Don’t be afraid to approach the social organs of the party at the district as well as the provincial level. Regularize your pensions and make rational use of your benefits. Don’t spend it on new wives or alcoholic beverages. Look for income-generating activities to ensure your and your families’ sustainability,” Momade advised.
Poverty rates are very high in Macorococho, a fact that led Ossufo Momade to assure the local community at a rally that he would meet national and foreign investors in order to mobilize investments for this region.
The rally ended with the public presentation of Geraldo Carvalho as regional head of the party in the centre of the country. Carvalho joined Renamo in the 1980s, and, in 2009, he helped found the MDM, which he abandoned in 2017, returning to the country’s main opposition party.
Ossufo Momade was working in Sofala throughout the last week, with the aim of revitalising his party base there.
