Africa-Press – Tanzania. Mozambique’s head of state and leader of Frelimo, the ruling party, Filipe Nyusi, called on Friday in his opening speech at the 12th party congress for the debates to move away from an “agenda” of division and focus on solving the country’s problems.
“Our ultimate goal is to secure victories” in the next electoral cycle, “a fundamental condition for us to continue to better serve Mozambicans. This is our raison d’être as Frelimo,” he said.
“We therefore call on everyone to conduct the debates within our agenda, an agenda that unites us and not the agenda that may divide us,” Nyusi detailed in his speech.
Analysts told Lusa on Thursday that, as in other congresses and on the verge of a new electoral cycle, different wings should seek seats in the bodies that will choose the 2024 presidential candidate.
On Wednesday, the Frelimo Political Commission reprimanded in a statement a militant who raised an item outside the agenda approved at the last central committee meeting – Castigo Langa asked Nyusi not to seek a third term at the head of the country.
Today, immediately on opening the proceedings, the party president said he expected the 1,500 delegates to focus on the daily problems of Mozambicans.
He said that the delegates were expected to focus on the daily problems of the Mozambican people, such as the cost of living, the fight against terrorism and the impact of climate change.
He called for “answers from the society that stopped to listen to us today,” referring to the live broadcast by several television stations and the representation of all provinces among the delegates.
On the government’s side, he said, the new single salary scale for the civil service, which raises the minimum wage, was ready to go ahead as soon as it was approved by parliament.
The “sustainability of the party” and the “need for rejuvenation” of that political force are also on the same list of issues that for Nyusi are of special importance.
Filipe Nyusi also called again for reflection on the feasibility of starting to hold district elections in 2024, as defined under the understandings with the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, opposition) that led to the 2019 peace agreement.
This is not a fear of Frelimo to go to the polls, he stressed, but rather a realisation from those with experience on the ground, that the decentralisation process deserves further elaboration, he reiterated, in line with what he has been advocating in recent months. Mwenyekiti wa CCM Taifa na Rais wa JMT Ndg.
Part of his speech was dedicated to the special relations with neighbouring Tanzania and the ties forged in the Mozambican struggle for independence from Portuguese colonialism, in a session which was attended by the Tanzanian president and president of Tanzania’s ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) , Samia Suluhu, as guest of honour.
Filipe Nyusi also congratulated João Lourenço and the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) for their August election victory in that Lusophone country.
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