MORE THREATS FROM DHLAKAMA OVER “AUTONOMY”

Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Mozambique’s former rebel movement Renamo has once again threatened to overthrow the government if the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, does not approve the Renamo bill to establish “autonomous provinces”.Speaking in Balama, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado on Friday, Dhlakama threatened that if the ruling Frelimo party uses its parliamentary majority to defeat the bill “(President Filipe) Nyusi and Frelimo will not govern this country”.He claimed that, after his two meetings with Nyusi in early February “some radicals in Frelimo didn’t like it”. They were trying to deny Nyusi his authority as President, and Dhlakama alleged there were even Frelimo members who said “Nyusi is nothing here”.Cited by the independent television station STV, Dhlakama said this alleged campaign against Nyusi was the work of his predecessor, Armando Guebuza “who is manoeuvring everything”. He even offered to help Nyusi, “because these contradictions in Frelimo could ruin our peace”.He was referring to the dispatch of Frelimo brigades to the provinces, headed by members of the party’s Political Commission, several of whom denounced Dhlakama’s plan for “autonomous provinces” as a threat to the country’s national unity. But, contrary to the Renamo leader’s claims, all of them applauded Nyusi’s decision to hold a dialogue with Dhlakama.Speaking at Chimbonila, in the neighbouring province of Niassa on Sunday, Dhlakama said once more he will not allow the bill on autonomy to be voted down in the Assembly. At the same time, he added that he would not need to resort to war to impose “autonomous province”. He claimed it was Frelimo “who wants war. But they haven’t got the capacity. They always lose”.At a rally in Maniamba, in the Lago district of Niassa, a man who claimed to represent local Renamo members, urged Dhlakama to divide the country along the line of the Save river (the conventional boundary between southern and central Mozambique). Renamo would take the whole centre and north and leave the southern provinces to Frelimo.This man threatened that, if Dhlakama backtracked, Renamo members in Lago would not only abandon their party, but would flee the country and take refuge in Malawi or Tanzania.In reply, Dhlakama said he was attempting to solve the problems of the people, which he intended to do “peacefully”.Nobody yet knows the content of the Renamo bill on “autonomous provinces” since it has not been presented to the assembly, much less to the wider public.