dyton mupawaenda
THE opposition-led unrest in Mozambique has spawned disruptions and delays on transport routes and energy exports to neighbouring countries. It needs to stop now.
SADC, as it does once the election process is over and the relevant national courts have considered all electoral petitions and objections and made their final ruling, has endorsed the election.
Mozambique’s neighbours have held firmly to the position that the people of Mozambique have spoken and had the wishes of the majority confirmed.
But despite exhausting all channels to first contest the election and then the results, the opposition and groups of its supporters have still refused to accept the outcome and the fact that they were out-voted and lost.
Most of the unrest is in the major cities of Maputo and in particular Beira and surrounding areas. This is why neighbours, and especially Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, who rely on these major ports for so much of their trade, have been hit hard.
President Mnangagwa, the SADC chairperson, last month congratulated incoming President Daniel Chapo and his Frelimo party on their victory, carefully waiting until the Mozambican courts had dealt with all objections since the winners could not be confirmed until all processes had been completed.
The SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security this week held an Extraordinary Summit, with all three Presidents who sit on it governing countries that directly border Mozambique, so having special interest in a return to peace in that country.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania chaired the meeting attended by President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia and President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi.
The Troika had exceptionally detailed interest in resolving the dispute.
There has been a tendency among some opposition parties losing elections in the SADC region to seek support from neighbouring countries, especially those where a previous opposition leader has won an election recently and become the new President.
If the Mozambican opposition were hoping this route would work they were disappointed. Both President Chakwera in 2020 and President Hichilema in 2022 defeated the previous incumbents in their countries. But both are firm believers in the rule of law and the right of voters to choose and so have endorsed the Mozambican elections along with the rest of the region.
SADC countries do not dictate who wins elections and who loses. They accept the final results, the ones confirmed by the national courts. These nations are perfectly aware that sometimes the incumbent wins and sometimes the opposition wins. It all depends on the voters. And sometimes, as was seen in Malawi, a former ruling party returns to power after a spell on the opposition benches. We are all democracies.
The Troika made it clear that the violence must cease and the regional trade routes allowed to function properly. But they were then prepared to mobilise the Panel of Elders, with the ministerial committee of the Troika, to help the Mozambican Government and opposition move away from the present confrontation.
This has been effective in other countries in the past, with the Elders largely getting the losers to accept their loss, but then making sure that the winners are extra careful not to trample on anyone’s rights. However, this is not actually a problem in modern SADC since the opposition has always continued to function and been able to contest elections with their full rights.
A lot of the work of such panels is to help provide neutral ground for discussions and make suggestions where this might be useful to keep people talking, since SADC is not going to overturn modern elections, but is entitled to help all groups in a country at least work together on essentials.
Both SADC with President Mnangagwa’s earlier statement and now the Troika have called upon Mozambicans to accept the results.
The opposition has exhausted all legal routes and so needs to calm its supporters and stop the violence.
After this week’s Troika meeting, Dr Hassan highlighted that the region could not ignore the crisis in Mozambique, especially when it affected the socio-economic fabric of the entire region.
President Hichilema also stressed the need for the whole of SADC to support collective action to restore peace and security, and highlighted the damage that the Mozambique unrest was causing, especially with immediate neighbours.
When the Mozambican courts ruled that the elections in October were valid and that incoming President Chapo won the Presidency and Frelimo won the parliamentary elections, both by a significant margin, it was not some sort of instant decision.
The legal processes and then the court hearings and the court discussions took two months, since the courts had to plough through the many objections made by the main opposition party and consider what was said.
Sometimes this happens in a democracy but when it does there must still be a final result, or at least a final decision, and that has now happened in Mozambique.
Opposition leader Venancio Mondlane, who returned to Maputo from exile yesterday, must stop pandering to the whims and caprices of foreign handlers and put his country first.
His presence in Mozambique must not inflame tensions and stoke the embers of violence as the country needs to move forward in peace and harmony.
