6 July 2009
Maputo — Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, has announced that his party's long awaited congress will be held some time this week - but the Renamo headquarters in Maputo knows nothing about it.
According to a report in Monday's issue of the independent daily "O Pais", Dhlakama, speaking at the end of last week in Memba district, in the northern province of Nampula, declared "the Congress is in a week's time".
But when AIM sought confirmation from the Renamo national spokesperson, Fernando Mazanga, he seemed surprised by the news, and had clearly not read the "O Pais" story. He said he would have to contact Dhlakama for confirmation.
All he could tell AIM was that Renamo wanted to hold its congress "as quickly as possible". But he declined to offer any specific date.
The congress is supposed to be held in Nampula city, but has already been postponed twice. The initial excuse was that the ruling Frelimo party had sabotaged the congress by booking events in the same rooms that Renamo had booked, forcing the venues concerned to cancel the Renamo bookings. But when reporters checked with the main Nampula hotels and sports facilities, it turned out that Renamo had never made any bookings.
In Memba, Dhlakama claimed that Renamo had postponed the congress because of the current voter registration. He accused Frelimo of sabotaging the registration, and said "Renamo hoped to assess the course of this registration before going ahead with the Congress".
He said Renamo was extremely concerned at the slow rate of registration "because without voters, there are no elections".
It would be equally true to state that without delegates there are no political party congresses. In early May, Mazanga had promised that Renamo would hold meetings in all the districts and province to elect congress delegates. According to sources in the Renamo parliamentary group contacted by AIM, not a single such meeting has been held.
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