Africa-Press – Mozambique. Former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane threatened on Monday to call for protests “100 times worse” if the “political persecution” of his supporters continues, a day after one of his allies was shot in the centre of Mozambique.
“We want to warn the President, who was placed [in the presidency office] by the rapid intervention unit [police], that this is the last chance he has (…). The next victim they try to hit, we’re going to fire up the `Turbo V24 ultra’ [terminology used by the politician to categorise different phases of protests] (…). We’re waiting for one more wounded or dead. What you’ve seen so far is going to be 100 times worse,” Mondlane told thousands of supporters at a rally in Quelimane, in Zambezia province, central Mozambique.
At issue is the shooting on Sunday of Joel Amaral, a musician and supporter of Mondlane and author of songs that mobilised supporters in the municipal (2023) and then presidential (2024) election campaigns.
Amaral, who is now under “intensive care and evolving well”, was shot by unknown assailants in the Cualane 2 neighbourhood, in the city of Quelimane, the provincial capital of Zambézia.
“The injury was simply to his scalp. He was taken to the operating theatre where an exhaustive, thorough cleaning was carried out and no bullet was found,” said Palmira Nascimento, spokesperson for Quelimane Central Hospital, where the victim is hospitalised,
For Mondlane, this is yet another case of “political intolerance”.
“A total of 47 of our own senior members have been taken from our organisation, we have filed a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office and so far justice has not been done,” the politician said.
In the last five months, Mondlane, who rejects the results of the October 9 elections, has led the worst contestation of the election results the country has seen since the first multiparty elections (1994), with protests in which around 390 people lost their lives in clashes with the police, according to data from civil society organisations, also degenerating into looting and destruction of businesses and public infrastructure.
The Mozambican government previously confirmed at least 80 deaths, as well as the destruction of 1,677 commercial establishments, 177 schools and 23 health centres during the demonstrations.
However, on 23 March, Mondlane and Daniel Chapo, the now sworn-in President, met for the first time and a commitment was made to stop the violence in the country.
“I was obliged to go and shake hands with the President who was put in place by the National Electoral Commission and the Constitutional Council because they assured me that the persecution, killings and kidnappings would stop. But with what happened to Joel Amaral, are they delivering on their promises?” asked the politician.
Shortly after the 2024 general elections, Venâncio Mondlane’s legal advisor, the well-known lawyer Elvino Dias, and the head of Podemos, Paulo Cuambe, the party supporting his presidential candidacy, were shot dead on the night of 18 October in an ambush on the car they were travelling in in the centre of Maputo, with machine-gun fire, in a crime that caused a stir in Mozambican society and remains to be clarified.
The Mozambican president reacted to the latest case, that of Joel Amaral, labelling the act an ‘affront to democracy’ and calling for a ‘full investigation’.
“We received the news of the shooting of musician and politician Joel Amaral with deep concern. This act of gratuitous violence is not only an attack on a citizen who contributes his knowledge and dedication to our country, but also an affront to democracy and the principles of the rule of law, which we must all protect,” the head of state said in a statement.
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