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ANC wins South African elections. more...
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Small signs of Mozambique's political maturity
by Hugh McCullum
MAPUTO, 28 November 1999
Hilda Conceicao and Antonio Moiane are standing on
the side of the deeply-rutted road, their ragged clothes and work-hardened
hands tell who they are. Peasant farmers warily watching strangers come into
their
lush maize fields - the rainy season has come to southern Mozambique - to
talk about the elections this week.
Not for them are the political deals up in the capital, the constitutional
amendments, the fine points of democracy but they know what they want and who
they think will bring it to them. This is Maputo province, distinct from the
capital, and Zona Mafuwane, a hilly collection of small farms about 40km
south of Maputo city towards the Swaziland border is 100 percent Frelimo.
During the brutal civil war when Renamo rebels were close to the capital,
they had to flee their land and cluster for a dubious form of safety in the
fetid slums which surrounded Maputo and still exist as a semi-permanent sore
on the booming city center.
Hilda and Antonio have three children. They came back in 1998 and rebuilt
their reed huts and planted their maize, cassava, beans and groundnuts. They
want a school because Renamo burned the old one. The clinic is working again,
but barely. They have enough to eat but they are very poor and need
irrigation because the rains are so irregular.
But they will vote for Joaquim Chissana and Frelimo, and so will everyone of
the 300 or so eligible voters in a polling booth which will be set up this
week under a big tree.
"All the refuges have gone home now. There are no more Renamo to
frighten us and there are no Renamo supporters up here. Chissano fought to
drive them
out and we will support him, he will bring us a school and maybe even
irrigation. We don't want much and we know who we can trust," Antonio
says shyly. There is no enmity towards Renamo for its atrocities but this
part of
the country is solid Frelimo in the 3-4 December parliamentary and
presidential elections.
The elections will cost some US$42 million, about 90 percent of it paid for
by donors like the European Union, about 75 of whom were meeting today to
strategise on their observer mission in one of the plush downtown hotels that
have sprung up since peace took hold in Mozambique back in 1992.
The election observers and $42 million mean nothing to Antonio and Hilda or
Atanaseo Benzane and his family who came here from Inhambane province in
1978 and then had to leave for the horrible slums and are rebuilding again.
"We want Chissano to win because we believe he will profoundly change
our lives. If Renamo wins, well our lives will go on, there will be no more
war but we think they will slow things down. They don't care about us down
here in the south," Benzane says.
For them the issues are simple: a school, a clinic, an irrigation system and
peace.
Further north in Mozambique, of course, in the Renamo strongholds of Sofala
and Zambezia, peasants are saying different things as they support Renamo and
Afonso Dhlakama, its leader and presidential candidate.
It is market day at Boane village, also in Maputo province, long a Frelimo
stronghold. Electioneering is going on here with huge billboards, buttons
with Chissano's goateed face and stickers everywhere. Dhlakama stares out
from behind his thick glasses but not as omnipresent.
The market is busy, women selling cloth, food, chickens, ducks and mounds of
used clothing and shoes. Just about anything one wants. The men lounge
around and at first are unwilling to talk politics. Are there Renamo
supporters here? How will Frelimo do? No one wants to talk despite the signs
and posters.
Then eight men, a woman and a two-year-old offer to talk but away from the
busy market where they might be overheard.
Some back Frelimo, some Renamo and some won't say. The village, although it's
in the south, has taken sides although the ones who won't say who they
support claim it has nothing to do with fear of reprisals from Frelimo.
The conversation rages back and forth, quite heated at times.
"Some of us are tired of Frelimo, we've had them forever, too long. We
want a change, something new. There's no problem here in Boane, it's up there
in
the city with the politicians. We don't fight among each other, but we
argue."
A Frelimo supporter says the changes can be made just as easily by Chissano
so why change? The discussion is good-natured but when asked about peace and
reconciliation after years of war, both presidential candidates get a
tongue-lashing.
"If Chissano would stop accusing Dhlakama of being a killer it would be
better. You can't have reconciliation by keeping on accusing Renamo of
killing. Frelimo killed people too. Lots of people on both sides lost
relatives and everything they owned. The politicians should stop playing up
the war. They have to remember that Renamo was born from Frelimo to help
liberate the country."
The group bickers amongst itself, Frelimo and Renamo. But it is good-natured.
One Renamo backer says he was stopped by the village administrator, a Frelimo
appointee, and asked if he was doing his job
getting voters out to register.
It is difficult to recall that Mozambique fought a bitter civil war between
these two parties that killed thousands of people, displaced millions and
ruined much of the country before peace came in 1992 and that this is only
the second multi-party election in history.
"It doesn't matter who wins, we will never go back to war, we will
accept the winner and the loser, we know that this way is the best way,"
says one man who had been vociferously arguing with his friend that Renamo
was the best.
Outside the political arena in this second election, the voters are still
enthusiastic about democracy and election. Some 7.4 million (83 percent of
eligible voters) have registered to vote in a country where 70 percent of
the people are poor peasants and infrastructure is extremely fragile.
But the level of political maturity shown by the voters gives many cause for
hope as Mozambique faces its rebuilding and rebirth. (SARDC)
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