Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo party Central Committee two-day meeting ended on Saturday evening without insightful debates on some of the country’s most pressing challenges, according to observers.
Meeting on 24 and 25 March, the most important body between congresses, the Central Committee had a list of items on its agenda, mainly evaluation of government’s performance throughout 2022, the achievement of municipalities run by the party, among others.
The press conference sessions were a bland affair, with party’s spokesperson, Ludmila Maguni, telling Mozambicans that Frelimo gave its own 2022 governance performance an “A”, this despite various blunders and moments which impacted such a performance negatively.
The speeches made from the floor by the leaders of Frelimo’s social bodies were adulatory of the party’s chairperson, Filipe Nyusi, and basically parroted the party line that everything is fine and were just short of calling those with different ideas as enemies of the state, as defined by Frelimo.
Even when criticism was directed internally, it did not merit much more than applause. The Secretary-General of Frelimo’s Veteran Association (ACLLIN), Fernando Faustino, berated what he called bootlickers, mischief maker, interlopers, among others.
Friday morning when the meeting began, the tension was palpable, with strained faces across the room. However, things started improving as the day grew old, perhaps as it became clear that the issue of succession which weighed heavily on everyone’s minds would not be litigated.
Ahead of the Central Committee meeting, there was a group within Frelimo agitating for the party to begin debating the issue of succession of President Filipe Nyusi, whose second and final term ends in January 2024, by which time the country should have elected his successor.
It was hoped that with reports that Nyusi is open to amending the constitution to secure a third term, the meeting would address the issue, which did not come to pass. Mozambique Insights understands that this will likely be discussed towards the end of the year, in the second meeting of the Central Committee.
Seemingly, the only contentious moment was when a Central Committee member told the plenary that government’s communication was not effective, without Nyusi promptly shooting down such a thought.
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