Former Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi died of a long illness, on Saturday, in Maputo, aged 82.
Born in then Lourenço Marques (Maputo), on 10 April 1941, he was lucky to have been one of the few Blacks who obtained a high school degree during the colonial period.
Alongside his childhood friend, former President Joaquim Chissano, Mocumbi went to Lisbon, the capital of the former colonial power, Portugal, to further his studies. Mocumbi trained as a doctor at the faculty of medicine of the University of Lisbon.
However, owing to his political militancy, he was forced to move to France, where he continued to study at the University of Poitiers until 1963.
He actively contributed to the founding of Frelimo in 1962 and, the following year, interrupted his studies to become a member of Frelimo’s Central Committee and head the Department of Information and Propaganda.
In 1967, he returned to his studies, this time at the University of Lousanne, in Switzerland, where he worked as an assistant physician at St. Loup and became a specialist in General Boarding.
He also received the Diploma in Health Planning in 1975, in Dakar, Senegal. Back in his country, he worked as a doctor and director in various health institutions. He was also Coordinator of the Beira National Base during the National Vaccination Campaign, which qualified Mozambique for the eradication of smallpox, and collaborated in the preparation of the report on Health in the World (WHO, 78-79).
His most active political participation began in 1980, when he became Minister of Health, then, in 1987, he held the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs until 1994. He was prime minister from 1995 to 2004.
As prime minister, Mocumbi met the press every Wednesday, a day after the Council of Ministers, where he would interact with members of the press until he answered all questions journalists asked of him.
After leaving government, Mocumbi became as High Commissioner of the Partnership on Clinical Trials between European countries and developing countries, based in the Netherlands, at the invitation of the World Health Organisation.
Morumbi was instrumental in the setting-up of Manhica Foundation, which has been at the forefront of malaria research in the world.
He is a member of several associations, such as the Mozambican Medical Association, the Mozambican Association for the Defense of the Family, the National Liberation Struggle Combatants Association, the Mozambican Association of Public Health and the New York association International Women Health Coalition.
He was decorated with the Order of the Grand Cross of the South (Brazil, 1992) and with the Cross-Order of Bernardo O’Higgins (Chile, 1993).
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