A Maputo City District Court has weighed in into a political dispute pitting the chairperson of Mozambique’s opposition Renamo, Ossufo Momade, and member of parliament, Venâncio Mondlane, who until recently was the former’s chief political advisor.
The 11 section of a Maputo City Judicial Court on Monday notified Renamo to, within 10 days, contest an injunction request to restrain Momade from leading the main opposition party sought by Mondlane – Momade’s term of office ended on 17 January, meaning that he has overstayed his statutory term.
Furthermore, Mondlane also asked the court to force Renamo to hold its elective congress.
Meanwhile, Momade has been accused of curtailing the political freedoms of some members who are even blocked from entering Renamo’s premises, according to Mondlane. “If the party claims to be the founder of democracy in Mozambique, then it must work as a democratic institution, where the rights and duties of each member must be respected,” said a Renamo insider, adding that Mondlane believes that in the absence of a plausible explanation as to why the party had not held as elective congress, it is vitally important that justice institutions restore democratic, constitutional and statutory order with Renamo.
However, a lawyer told Mozambique Insights that Renamo has arguments to rebut the restraining order. Apparently, Mondlane should have first lodged the complaints with the party before seeking a judicial remedy from a court of law.
Mondlane was Renamo’s head of Renamo’s list for the October 2023 municipal elections for Maputo city. With all projections showing that Renamo had won Maputo city, the electoral bodies and courts, including the Constitutional Council, which doubles as an electoral court during elections, gave the victory to the ruling Frelimo party.
Mondlane thought that he did not have enough support from within Renamo and started accusing the party leadership of being in cahoots with Frelimo. This led to Momade to dismiss some party members from Maputo city, Maxixe, Nacal-Porto, Zambézia, Moatize and others, who are congress delegates, allegedly for supporting change in the party.
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Momade has been at the helm of Renamo since the death of Afonso Dhlakama in May 2028. His five-year term of office ran out on 17 January. However, the party’s spokesperson José Manteigas endorsed Momade as Renamo’s candidate to next October’s general and presidential elections.
The move has led to three Renamo members to also announce their intention to challenge Momade as party leader and presidential candidate, namely Mondlane, Elias Dhkakama, the brother of late Renamo historic leader, and Juliano Picardo, a former member of parliament.
As a show of strength, the supposedly outgoing Renamo leadership dismissed Mondlane from the position of Momade’s advisor and party parliamentary bench rapporteur just days after the former announced his candidature to be the party’s presidential candidate.
Furthermore, all the dismissed delegates hail from some of the municipalities where Renamo appeared to have won the election, but the electoral bodies thought otherwise, leading to the local party branches to dispute the results with no support from the leadership.
Regardless, it is going to be important to watch how the judicial case unfolds since the courts have been seen as biased, weak to the strong and strong to the weak; it is likely to be another test to Mozambique’s democracy.
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