Friday, February 28, 2014

PAY ATTENTION

The November 3, 1969 , at the height of armed struggle for liberation of Mozambique from colonial rule , led by the Liberation Front of Mozambique ( FRELIMO ) , Uria Simango , then vice - president of the same , wrote a famous text that was headlined " grim situation in FRELIMO . " Simango described exhaustively , mischievous contours in which that libertarian movement was involved. Was markedly ideological dispute ( the political system to be adopted after gaining independence , between socialism and capitalism ) , power (who would be part of the leadership of the movement , with the death of Eduardo Mondlane , the first president of FRELIMO ) and influence with the Central Committee of the movement ( in extremely divided and marked by sharp contradictions among its members height) . Indeed , according Simango , was at the time a deep sense of sectarianism , nepotism , regionalism and tribalism . There were people along the FRELIMO leadership that did not look the means to achieve their personal , material and political interests , even if that meant the instigation of intrigue , personal attacks , unfair trials and even murder . Simango also spoke, in that text, the tendency of a group in the leadership of FRELIMO , from the south of the country and from 1966 to assemble yourself and make decisions on behalf of the movement and impose them on other members through manipulations . Names as Joaquim Chissano , Marcelino dos Santos , Samora Machel and Armando Guebuza for him are cited as the main planners of this campaign , accusing them of fomenting internal divisions based on region of origin of the members of the Central Committee of FRELIMO then and being the architect movement control for your hands .

It was just an introduction . Let's go back to 2014 . It is an undisputed fact that the party who " inherited" the political legacy of the then FRELIMO (like liberation movement ) , today called Frelimo Party , is currently living one of the most critical periods in its history. In recent years, resulting from the erosion of its most vocal principles and ideals ( national unity , sovereignty of the people and the nation above individual interests , more specifically ) , this party has been living a crisis of disbelief , disorientation and collapse unprecedented . And it was with the rise of the party leadership by Armando Guebuza , one of the names that have Uria Simango point in the text referenced by me above. Now , about Guebuza I had written a text , in November last year and titled " Why do I think Guebuza is murdering Frelimo ? " Where summarily say that although he has played a key role in reinvigorating the party after the second general elections in the country ( conducted in 1999 and the FRELIMO almost lost at the polls ) , its governance was markedly disappointing at all levels . Reflections addition, beyond the general collapse of the guidelines of his election manifesto and governance or the capture of the state to safeguard their personal interests or collectivist associated with your party, have been high levels of discontent population , erosion of its popularity and legitimacy ( outside and inside the Frelimo ) and, in recent months , the electoral debacle of his party in the last municipal elections in major cities of the country .

Guebuza as maximum leader of Frelimo , has played all the cards at your disposal to swim against the tide and clean the stain that features aa ruthlessly administration ( Frelimo ) and its governance ( in the state ) . The campaigns of " deification " of his personality and alleged accomplishments began by all means of public and private media under his direct influence . The holding marches " solidarity" with him, ditto . In parallel , its maintenance in the power and influence of Frelimo circuits began in the last Congress of Frelimo , held in Cabo Delgado , where most of his closest supporters and acolytes became part of the various decision-making bodies and masses within party . This desideratum reached its culmination in the current period of succession in the party leadership , with the controversial appointment of 3 controversial pre - Frelimo candidates for the presidency , namely José Pacheco , Philip , and Alberto Nyussi Vaquina . Now also on these names I had written a text , in December last year , which he said succinctly that none of them possessed charisma, credibility and enough to be presidential candidates (one was disliked by his apparent arrogance , popularity, another was too invisible and last was clear stooge Guebuza to public opinion, respectively) . Such positioning has come to be corroborated by a large fringe of Mozambican citizens across the country and even in the Diaspora , reaching the summit with its defense until next party structures Frelimo and its various members and supporters .

Let us return to the " grim situation in Frelimo " . While historical contexts are clearly distinct , one factor seems to be common between the 1969 and the FRELIMO FRELIMO 2014 : the struggle for power and influence. An increasing number of members and sympathizers of the party not you fit in the current Frelimo , as their traditional principles and values ​​. The party clearly moved away from its historic mission of liberation of the people in every sense of the social and economic life , now living in the light of the glory of having achieved political independence of Mozambique , the " right to be their liberators deservedly rich " and platitudes emptied of tangible results in the bellies and the existential condition of the other . The arrogance of the ruling political elite and luxurious and exclusive use of the resources and opportunities that the country offers from them and its direct employees ( at the expense of other " forgotten " or " excluded " members ) has made further grow domestic discontent and willingness to break . First it was public opinion to rise up through social networks , independent media and some civil society organizations . Followed the " application of repudiation " by some
big party members against mandatory and exclusive statement of the famous three pre - candidates , without internal defense, competition from interested parties and trampling certain procedures customary in the circumstances gender . Today it is the public application of more members , as in the case of Luisa Diogo or Aires Ali , manifesto hit in the testicles of arrogance Paundes internal and its most vocal public defenders associated with the G- 40 . It is clearly a sign that Frelimo is indeed experiencing a leadership crisis and that " clairvoyant unanimity " was the most subtle confidence trick all these years of management and governance Guebuza . Indeed , and according to what we have seen in recent days in the Central Committee meeting of the party , who rules the Frelimo is / are not just that / those in power chair or undertake active policy . Graça Machel is one of those people and we have recently witnessed . There are many others in the " anonymity " and whose word can be crucial when making any decisions on the future consequences for the party .

PS1 : When writing this , I got some questions to myself and that I could not even answer : Frelimo repeat the example of his predecessor FRELIMO , and bring back all this gloom and doom ? And because these processes necessarily involve " bloodshed " before the light at the end of the tunnel appears ( as with Uria Simango and many other reactionaries before and just after independence ) , who is / will be sacrificed today ?


PS : I have been listening to the candidacy of Diogo has been receiving high levels of sympathy among the public ( particularly among disillusioned / disappointed with the current leadership of Frelimo and State, the undecided and not you fit in options of the Opposition parties ) . I'll post a short notice to navigation. Indeed , let us not forget that Frelimo is , above all , an institution . Guebuza was probably happy to get to be somewhat stronger than the party ( although nothing without him ) , but the case of Luisa Diogo may be quite different . Stronger institutions overlap with any personal qualities . Obama is an example , in the United States . The mere willingness of someone can not get around the steel walls of obscure collective interests . And further , be attentive to counterintelligence propagandist ... Just yesterday talking to a friend who told me that the indication of those first 3 contenders ( Pacheco , and Nyussi Vaquina ) was just to exorcise the demons both internal and external to the party to meddle after the " miracle worker " Diogo to appease the spirits and gather the flock again. Exactly as it does in those strokes of theater made ​​in the religious rituals of Brazilian evangelical churches full of people attracted problems for a given context , strung on dark and voted to intense noise where all talk about their dilemmas at the same time, in order to light up the lights , turn up the "savior " with words of comfort and a peace song in the background promising better days if they believe in it ... and invest in it . PAY ATTENTION .(E.K.Barroso)

Monday, February 24, 2014

POLL SHOWS LUISA DIOGO MOST POPULAR FRELIMO CANDIDATE

Of all the people whose names have been mentioned as possible candidates of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo in October’s presidential elections, former Prime Minister Luisa Diogo is by far the most popular, according to an opinion poll published in the latest issue of the independent weekly “Savana”.She massively outpolled all three of the names on the short list drawn up by the Frelimo Political Commission in December – current Prime Minister Alberto Vaquina, Agriculture Minister Jose Pacheco, and Defence Minister Filipe Nyussi.The poll was undertaken between 10 and 18 February by a Mozambican team with technical support from the Brazilian company, Nova Global Pesquisas. 1,348 people of voting age were interviewed by telephone in seven of Mozambique’s 11 provinces (Maputo City, Maputo Province, Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Zambezia, Tete, and Sofala). Asked who they thought would be the best Frelimo presidential candidate, 41 per cent named Luisa Diogo, and a further 19 per cent gave her as their second choice. She was followed by another former prime minister, Aires Ali, on 19 per cent, then the former speaker of parliament, Eduardo Mulembue (13 per cent), and the former head of the Frelimo parliamentary group, Manuel Tome (10 per cent).Of the Political Commission’s three “pre-candidates”, Vaquina did best, with five per cent, though 20 per cent named him as their second choice. Pacheco had only three per cent of first preferences, and Nyussi one per cent. “Others” had one per cent, four per cent wanted none of the Frelimo candidates, and three per cent did not know or did not answer.
When first and second preferences are added together, the results were as follows:
Luisa Diogo – 57 per cent
Aires Ali – 37 per cent
Eduardo Mulembue – 29 per cent
Alberto Vaquina – 25 per cent
Manuel Tome – 16 per cent
Jose Pacheco – 7 per cent
Filipe Nyussi – 2 per cent
Others – 2 per cent

Perhaps even more significant, the poll showed that Diogo is the Frelimo candidate most likely to defeat the opposition in a presidential election.Asked who they would vote for, if the election was held tomorrow, 33 per cent of the sample chose Diogo, with another 15 per cent naming her as second choice.The second most popular figure was the mayor of Beira, and leader of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), Daviz Simango, with 14 per cent. He was followed by Aires Ali (13 per cent), Eduardo Mulembue (10 per cent), Alberto Vaquina (9 per cent), and Manuel Tome (8 per cent).The poll is very bad news for what is supposed to be the largest opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo. Only two per cent of the sample named the Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama as their first choice.

If the first and second preferences are added together, the poll gives the following results:
Luisa Diogo – 48 per cent
Aires Ali – 28 per cent
Daviz Simango – 25 per cent
Eduardo Mulembue – 24 per cent
Alberto Vaquina – 21 per cent
Manuel Tome – 14 per cent
Jose Pacheco – 6 per cent
Afonso Dhlakama – 5 per cent
Filipe Nyussi – 3 per cent
Others – 2 per cent

When the results are broken down by province, Diogo leads in five of them (Maputo province and city, Tete, Zambezia and Nampula). In her home province of Tete, she had 48.1 per cent of first preferences. In Sofala, often regarded as an opposition stronghold, Simango had 42.8 of the first preferences. Sofala is Dhlakama’s home province – but only seven per cent of the Sofala sample would vote for him. In Cabo Delgado, Diogo had only 13.9 per cent of first preferences. Three of the other Frelimo possibilities did better – Vaquina (34.7 per cent), Ali (14.9 per cent) and Tome (14.4 per cent).Diogo has a huge advantage among women voters. 46.8 per cent of the women in the sample said they would vote for her. She also topped the poll among male voters, but with 23.2 per cent. Diogo is also the favourite among young voters. 36.2 per cent of those aged from 18 to 24 said they would vote for her, and 34 per cent of those aged 25 to 34. Her popularity drops off among older voters, but she only lost her dominant position among those aged over 55. In this group, she took 18.8 per cent of the first preferences, compared to 21.1 per cent for Vaquina. Luisa Diogo was deputy finance minister, and then finance minister under the governments headed by President Joaquim Chissano from 1995 to 2004, and she received much of the credit for negotiating reductions in Mozambique’s foreign debt, under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief initiative.Chissano appointed her Prime Minister in February 2004, and his successor, Armando Guebuza kept her in that post until 2010, when she was replaced by Aires Ali. In 2012, Diogo lost her seat on the Frelimo Political Commission, but she remains a member of the Central Committee.

RENAMO GUNMEN ARRESTED IN INHAMBANE

The Mozambican police on Friday arrested seven gunmen of the former rebel movement Renamo who were smuggling 15 AK-47 assault rifles through the southern province of Inhambane. According to a report on the independent television station STV, the men were detained in Morrumbene. Acting on a tip-off, the police stopped the pick up truck they were using, and found the guns hidden in sacks of maize, plus their ammunition clips and 2,842 rounds of ammunition. “We were informed of the transport of guns in vehicles belonging to Renamo”, the Inhambane provincial police commander, Raul Ossufo, told reporters. When the Renamo group realized the police were lying in wait for them, they tried to open fire, near the bridge separating Morrumbene district from Maxixe city, “but they were all arrested. That night two of them tried to escape, but they were rearrested in the town of Quissico, in Zavala district”. Ossufo said that one of the group, Felizardo Muchanga, belonged to the Renamo unit which reoccupied the old Renamo base at Catine, in Homoine district, at the turn of the year, and took part in the attack on Mavume locality, in the neighbouring district of Funhalouro, on 14 January. He escaped from the subsequent attack by the armed forces (FADM) against the camp the group was setting up at Mabelecula, near Mavume. Another of the group, Alexandre Agostinho, said that the guns had all come from the Renamo bases in Gorongosa district, in the central province of Sofala, and were intended for use in Inhambane. If so, the guns had made a detour via Manica province first, for the police say the truck started its journey in the Manica provincial capital, Chimoio.  The driver said he had indeed set out from Chimoio, with instructions to drive to Maputo. But when he reached Maxixe, his superior (whose name he did not reveal) told the group to stay there. On Friday he was told to go to the aid of colleagues whose vehicle had broken down in Morrumbene. When they reached the other vehicle, they fell into a police ambush and were arrested.

Monday, February 17, 2014

RENAMO NO LONGER INSISTING ON DELAYING REGISTRATION

Mozambique’s former rebel movement Renamo is no longer insisting on a further delay in voter registration, according to the party’s national spokesperson, Fernando Mazanga, cited in Monday’s issue of the independent newsheet “Mediafax”.Renamo had already succeeded in postponing the start of registration from 30 January to 15 February. At a session of the dialogue between the government and Renamo last Thursday, less than 48 hours before the registration was due to begin, the head of the Renamo delegation, Saimone Macuana, called for a further postponement of 10 days.That would have required consultation between the government and the National Elections Commission (CNE) on Friday, followed by an emergency session of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) to issue a decree changing the date.The government successfully called Renamo’s bluff, and the registration began as planned on Saturday.Mazanga told “Mediafax” that “in a game of democratic negotiations, one cannot only expect to take. One has to give in order to take”.“Although our request has not been granted, we are not going to insist”, he said.He thought it would have been “logical” to delay registration so that when it began, it would be governed by “the new law”. But there is no “new law”: instead, there is a series of concessions wrung out of the government by Renamo and involving the complete politicisation of the electoral bodies, notably the placing of a small army of political appointees at every level of the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), the electoral branch of the civil service. It remains to be seen whether the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, will approve this.Despite Renamo’s disappointment, Mazanga said his party is mobilising its supporters to go to the registration posts and register as voters. But registration got off to a slow start at the weekend, with only a trickle of citizens making their way to the registration posts to acquire their voter cards. Heavy rains in parts of the country made it impossible to open many posts – even in cities such as Beira and Quelimane, according to correspondents for the “Mozambique Political Process Bulletin”, published by the anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP).Worst hit is the central province of Sofala. According to the director of the Sofala branch of STAE, Celso Chimoio, speaking to reporters in Beira, it was only possible to place 211 of the 320 Sofala brigades at their posts in time to start the registration on Saturday.The rains have affected mobility in the Sofala districts of Machanga, Dondo, Marromeu, Cheringoma, Buzi and in Beira itself.Registration has also not yet started in the three districts worst affected by the raids and ambushes undertaken by Renamo gunmen – Gorongosa, Maringue and Chibabava. Chimoio said the registration material had been sent to the district capitals, but STAE had left the opening of the posts to the discretion of the local authorities, who were to judge whether it was safe to open them.A further problem lay with equipment failures. The Bulletin’s correspondents knew of 16 posts, scattered across the country, where the brigades could not begin work because their computers or printers malfunctioned. Lack of electricity also kept some brigades in enforced idleness. The registration posts are supposed to have generators – but the Bulletin knew of 48 cases where the lack of generators stopped the posts from opening.In all, there should be 4,078 voter registration brigades in the country, each formed by three people.STAE headquarters in Maputo told AIM on Monday morning that it was currently compiling statistics from all the provinces, and should know by mid-afternoon exactly how many registration posts had been unable to open.

TRAIN AVAILABLE TO TAKE CARS ACROSS FLOODED ROAD

A train is now available to carry vehicles across the flooded stretch of the Beira-Zimbabwe highway in the central Mozambican province of Sofala, reports Monday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”. The Pungue river has swept across the road along the stretch between Mutua and Tica, about 80 kilometres west of Beira, making the road extremely hazardous for light vehicles.At the request of the Sofala provincial government, the port and rail company CFM has made a train formed of 15 wagons available which can ferry vehicles between the Tica and Dondo rail stations. The railway is higher than the road and is in no immediate danger of being flooded.CFM could not start this service as soon as it had hoped because a goods train carrying a consignment of wheat to Zimbabwe derailed on Friday night, and the line could only be reopened at 16.00 on Saturday. CFM then discovered that, because no proper publicity had been given to the train service, there were no vehicles waiting to be transported either at Tica or at Dondo. So the Saturday train service was cancelled.CFM planned to run two trains a day in each direction along the 40 kilometre stretch of line, but this all depended on how much demand there was for motorists.Despite being told not to use the road, some light vehicles continued to take the risk. Some simply turned their engines off and paid local people up to 1,000 meticais (about 33 meticais) to push them across the flooded stretch of road.On Saturday the water on the road was 70 centimetres deep, though this fell to 40 centimetres on Sunday. Hundreds of trucks and other vehicles queued up on either side to cross the flooded stretch in convoy under police escort.


CHEATING LEADS TO ANNULMENT OF EXAMS

Mozambique’s Higher School of Journalism (ESJ) has annulled admission exams held in Maputo on 17 January, because of evidence of cheating.The annulment concerns the Portuguese and history exams taken by 625 candidates, examined in classrooms at the Josina Machel Secondary School. In at least one of the rooms, the monitors supervising the exams sold advance copies of the tests to candidates.According to Tomas Jane, director of the ESJ, two days after the exams one of the candidates made a written denunciation of the cheating.Cited in Monday’s issue of the daily paper “Noticias”, Jane said “we set up a commission to investigate the case, and the report showed that there were strong signs of academic fraud, and so we chose to annul the exams”. During the investigation some candidates, chosen at random, said they had paid 100 or 200 meticais (about three to six US dollars) for copies of the tests.The Maputo exams have been rescheduled for 22 February. The measure does not affect candidates who sat the exams in the other provincial capitals, where there was no indication of cheating.The corrupt staff who sold the test papers have been identified, Jane said, and the measures to be taken against them will be announced after the investigations are complete. 

Sunday, February 16, 2014

FADM/RENAMO

In serious skirmishes that took place with typical ranges of working hours , the forces of Renamo guerrillas susteram yesterday ( 15 ) military units of the Armed Forces for the Defense of Mozambique ( FADM ) stationed in Satungira ( Sofala Province ) . Indeed , the first " journey " of attacks FADM resisted with the support of its powerful anti - aircraft artillery . By late morning Renamo took the initiative and the fighting lasted close to two hours , according to popular nearby. FADM eventually leave the combat zone , leaving some weapons such as heavy machine guns and bazookas . During withdrawal , some military concentrated in an old cemetery and the most " psychologically pressured " retreated into groups until Nculomadzi in locality Tazaronda , 15 km Satungira speaking acted incediado huts and slaughtered goats and pigs . There are reports , confirmed by independent source , whereby military of some army units positioned in Kanda , 30 km at the other end of the Serra da Gorongosa have defected in small groups , bailing up of private transport in circulation on the national road . ( facebook / Unay Cambuma )


Tuesday, February 11, 2014

GOVERNMENT AND RENAMO AGREE ON LARGER, POLITICISED CNE

The Mozambican government and the former rebel movement Renamo announced on Monday that they have agreed to change the composition of the National Elections Commission, expanding it from 13 to 17 members, and dominated by political parties.However, the dialogue meetings between the government and Renamo have no power to alter the CNE. The composition of the CNE is enshrined in law, and only the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, can change the law.Last year, the government delegation to the dialogue with Renamo repeatedly stressed that the executive cannot interfere in parliamentary decisions, and the government would not present the Assembly with a fait accompli. But that is certainly what the Monday deal looks like.At the end of the talks, the heads of the two delegations, Transport Minister Gabriel Muthisse, and senior Renamo parliamentarian, Saimone Macuiana, gave few details of their plans for the CNE. They said it would consist of 17 members, with representatives from all three parliamentary parties (the ruling Frelimo Party, Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement, MDM). There would also be representatives from civil society organisations, but nobody from the legal profession. Muthisse and Macuiana did not say how the 17 seats would be divided between the three parties and the civil society representatives.The law passed in 2012, stipulates a 13 member CNE – eight members from the political parties (five from Frelimo, two from Renamo, and one from the MDM), three nominees of civil society organisations, a judge appointed by the Higher Council of the Judicial Magistrature, and an attorney appointed by the Higher Council of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. By throwing off the judge and attorney, the government-Renamo deal will deprive the CNE of much needed legal expertise.The proposals from the dialogue will disappoint the great majority of domestic and foreign election observer groups, who have repeatedly called for a smaller, less politicised and more professional CNE. The government-Renamo deal goes in exactly the opposite direction, proposing a larger and more politicised CNE.The general international trend is that political parties should not sit on, much less dominate, electoral bodies. Frelimo has moved in that direction, and twice – in 2006 and in March 2012 – proposed that the CNE should consist entirely of civil society figures, with no political party representatives at all. The details of how these civil society figures would be appointed were never discussed, because the howls of rage from Renamo led Frelimo to beat a retreat, and produce the current make-up of the CNE.But that wasn’t enough for Renamo. Throughout the two years in which the electoral laws were discussed by a parliamentary commission, in meetings of the leaderships of the three parliamentary groups, and finally in the Assembly plenary, Renamo would not shift from its demand for “parity” – that is, it wanted the same number of seats on the CNE as Frelimo.The Renamo proposal defeated in 2012 was for a 14 member CNE – four members each from Frelimo, Renamo and the MDM, two from extra-parliamentary opposition parties, and none at all from civil society. This would have been a CNE with a built-in opposition majority.The current law was passed by the votes of the Frelimo and MDM parliamentary groups, with the Renamo deputies voting against. Far from accepting the parliamentary vote, Renamo refused to appoint its two members to the CNE, and boycotted the 2013 municipal elections (thus losing every seat it had held in the municipal assemblies). It also set about reversing the parliamentary vote, by trying to strike a deal with the government. For most of 2013, Renamo did not shift from its demand for “parity” on the CNE, and so the rounds of dialogue were singularly unproductive.As from April, Renamo gunmen began attacking police units in the central province of Sofala, and from June Renamo regularly ambushed vehicles on the stretch of the main north-south road, between the Save river and the small Sofala town of Muxungue. It looked as if Renamo was quite prepared to kill, main and destroy in order to change the composition of the CNE. It now looks as if Renamo has dropped its demand for “parity”. In late January, the Renamo national spokesperson, Fernando Mazanga, declared that Renamo is “flexible” and “not dogmatic”, and that the solution “does not necessarily involve parity”.“We are willing to make some concessions”, Mazanga added, “concessions in order to ensure that Mozambicans have free and fair elections, and above all that Mozambicans live in peace”.Renamo now has the CNE’s executive body, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), in its sights. Muthisse and Macuiana said that the composition of STAE is now under discussion.Currently STAE is the electoral branch of the civil service, and its members are supposed to be appointed on merit. During the discussions prior to the December 2012 vote, Renamo proposed a small army of political appointees staffing STAE at all levels, and looking over the shoulders of the professional election staff.The CNE is already a politicised body, so much so that its chairperson, Abdul Carimo, one of the civil society nominees, warned in January against the “pernicious intervention” by political parties on electoral staff. There were even some members of electoral bodies who set out to serve the parties they support, he added, thus forgetting the oath they took to uphold the Constitution and the laws.With more political party nominees on the CNE, this problem can only worsen.Renamo will submit to the Assembly the consensus on the CNE (and any consensus reached on STAE) as amendments to the electoral legislation. The next sitting of the Assembly is scheduled to begin on 19 February, and the electoral law will be one of the top points on its agenda. No doubt Renamo assumes that the government will oblige the Frelimo parliamentary group to accept the consensus reached in the dialogue.Muthisse said that the two sides have also agreed on the participation of five Mozambican observers in
future dialogue sessions, but he declined to name them.However, according to the latest issue of the independent weekly “Savana”, the five are Anglican bishop Dinis Sengulane, the Vice-Chancellor of the Polytechnic University, Lourenco do Rosario, the former Vice-Chancellot of Maputo’s Eduardo Mondlane University, Filipe Couto, muslim cleric Saide Abibo, and pastor Anastacio Chembele.Renamo seems to have dropped its demand for foreign mediation. “We also reached consensus that international observers, facilitators and negotiators would not be necessary”, said Muthisse.