P for Plateau
The new centre of national political power; the de facto and de jure power, considering the strong tribal ascendancy of Nyusi’s government over and above all else.
There are many things of extreme importance to the country that happen regularly at the Makonde Plateau, especially related to Cabo Delgado’s areas of wealth: natural resources (subsoil and marine, of all dimensions) are discussed there, out of the media spotlight or prying ears.
Even with the insurgency ravaging the province, the Plateau has always been a presidential bunker and the official seat of the parallel government that governs the country.
Q for Queen
The first lady, Isaura Nyusi, who is elusive and restrained in public appearances, has a strong temperament and runs roughshod over some presidential decisions, specifically influencing the appointment of people linked to her to national positions.
Without the weight and political experience of her predecessors, the first lady is referred to as rather petty and temperamental. She acts like a true queen and defends her offspring’s antics with jaws and teeth and does not balance or counterbalance her husband’s excesses.
R for Repression
The most repressive president since Samora Machel. His terms have been characterised by persecution in the independent media, society and even in the state apparatus. Mostly, this was through police repression.
Police General Commander Bernardino Rafael, member of the Makonde inner sanctum, has been the spear of the repression. He defied everything and everyone and cast aspersions at his imaginary and real enemies via his much-loved media, television.
Although Nyusi undertakes some charm operations, there are still some, if not all, shadows over the Cabo Delgado conflict that need to be clarified before the country becomes a Sudan or Democratic Republic of Congo.
At party level, he has adopted a fait accompli attitude, which he reveals to his allies. He is reported to have said in Frelimo’s smallest circle that “I won the elections,” distancing himself from all party and ideological efforts, and thus, distancing himself from any need for consultation on political or governmental strategies and perspectives.
The repression stems from strong authoritarianism and a sudden, incomprehensible aversion to criticism. Attitudes that not only earned the contemplative silence of their comrades, but also the growing chorus of discontent in the government, even from the most vocal followers in the party.
Another facet of the repression has been the buying of consciences or ferocious persecution of the press. Money from the slush fund of the intelligence services fed the egos of unscrupulous scribes and was used to infiltrate operatives in media companies. In this presidency, the violence against scribes has been particularly sustained: Ibrahimo Mbaruco is still missing, Ericino de Salema was tortured after being kidnapped in broad daylight (in the same modus operandi as the kidnappings).
The newsroom of Canal de Moçambique, a weekly critical of the regime, was torched. Offices of critical non-governmental organisations were broken into, and computer hard drives stolen.
S for State Secretaries
The most ill-fated idea of his presidency, born out of fear of Renamo winning some provincial governorship elections, destroying Frelimo’s veneer of democracy – hatched in a hurry and with the help of Edson Macuácua, former president Armando Guebuza’s Brutus, the idea of Secretary of State widened the gap in Frelimo and put paid to the important advance of electing rather than appointing governors to govern a province. Rather, governors have been disputing power and resources with state secretaries with the latter in the ascendancy.
The administrative and financial weight has become such a dangerous cancer and the country has been treated to sad spectacles of vanity and wounded egos. The foul-mouthed speeches were only matched by the confusion in which the most visible struggle in Frelimo was taking place. Furthermore, the model had stirred up tribalism within Frelimo. Even if the error is erased, the scars are there, in some places quite deep. Inclusion has been constitutionally extinguished.
T for Tribalism
Tribalism has been Nyusi’s original sin and Frelimo’s cancer. From disdain for the Centre (central Mozambique) to the ostracism to which the South has been consigned, the “Makondenization” of key sectors of the State showed a third agenda along with the manifesto “I Trust You, It’s With You that Things Work!”
For petty reasons and without any explanation, the South was ostracized, and Guebuza’s men chased away from government or exiled.
In these almost ten years, Eduardo Mondlane has been the biggest victim. National unity, first in the party and then in the state, has been postponed. The utopia of the post-independence New Man has been replaced by the New Man: I’m the boss. “The right is mine and the turn is ours.”
So far, tribalism has been Nyusi’s greatest gain. He has managed to strangle out Frelimo’s essence. His last electoral cycle is around the corner. It remains to be seen how the Opposition uses the fact and, above all, how Frelimo proposes to overcome this descent into the heart of darkness of its existence.
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