From the beastly ugly duckling!!!

The Matola City Committee of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party has passed a motion of censure against the governance of this southern city by mayor Arao Nhancale, even though he was elected on the Frelimo ticket in 2008.According to sources cited in the latest issue of the Sunday paper “Domingo”, the censure motion arose from a crisis in the relationship between Nhancale and most of the members of the City Committee. Frelimo Secretary-General Filipe Paunde, who is currently on a tour of Maputo province, said the motion was an unequivocal expression of the Committee’s “discontent at the way the municipality is being governed”.The motion “expresses the democracy within the party”, said Paunde. It was the City Committee that had promoted Nhancale as the Frelimo candidate and had supported his 2008 election campaign. But now it had withdrawn that support.“It’s not a good sign”, said Paunde. “It damages the Mayor’s reputation”.The motion has no immediate effect. It does not force Nhancale to resign – that would make little sense, since new municipal elections will be held on 20 November. But it now seems almost impossible for Nhancale to be chosen as the Frelimo mayoral candidate in these forthcoming elections.