VETERANS SHOULD BE “HEROES IN STRUGGLE AGAINST POVERTY”

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Friday night urged veterans of the country’s liberation struggle against Portuguese colonial rule to continue fighting so that they may also be seen as “heroes in the victory over poverty”.Guebuza was speaking at the closing session of a meeting of the National Committee of the Association of Veterans of the National Liberation Struggle (ACLLN), in his capacity as ACLLN President.“We recognise that we fought and defeated foreign rule in order to continue fighting to overcome the new challenges that poverty imposes on us”, said Guebuza. “We recognise that we have to honour the obligation that falls on our shoulders to realise the dream of 25 June 1962, the dream of a prosperous and united Mozambique, always at peace, and with a growing prestige in the community of nations”.(The date mentioned, 25 June 1962, was the date of the foundation, in Tanzania, of the national liberation movement, Frelimo, out of a merger of three earlier nationalist organisations). Just as happened in the past, Guebuza said, the members of the ACLLN should have “faith and trust in ourselves and in the capacities of our people, demonstrated over the years, to be able to defeat poverty and build our well-being”. Overcoming poverty depended on generating more wealth, he added, and he was sure that these targets “are within our reach’. He repeatedly stressed that this year has been declared “Samora Machel Year” in homage to the country’s first President, Samora Machel, who died 25 years ago, on 19 October 1986 in a place crash at Mbuzini, just inside South Africa, a disaster widely believed to have been provoked by the apartheid military.“Once again we urge all veterans of the national liberation struggle to commit themselves to designing and participating in activities that exalt the life and work of the first President of our free and independent Mozambique”, declared Guebuza. Also throughout this year preparations will take place for the Tenth Congress of Frelimo. This event is scheduled for 23-28 September 2012, coinciding with the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of Frelimo.