LEADER ATTACKED AND SERIOUSLY INJURED

Unidentified assailants have attacked and seriously injured Helder Mendonca, a leading figure in the new party PODEMOS (Party of Optimists for the Development of Mozambique).The violent attack took place in the Maputo city neighbourhood of Malanga on Thursday. The attackers beat Mendonca in the face with a tennis racket and slashed at his leg with a machete.According to a report on the Facebook page of the electoral observation coalition known as “Sala da Paz” (Peace Room), Mendonca is out of danger but his damaged leg is now in a plaster cast.

Mendonca is head of the PODEMOS list of parliamentary candidates for the Maputo Province constituency. He also attempted to run for the Presidency, but was unable to obtain the required 10,000 signatures from registered voters.

PODEMOS spokesperson Carlos Quembo has no doubt that the attack was politically motivated. He told “Sala da Paz” that the assailants “said they are going to destroy the party and that he (Mendonca) should stop campaigning because he talks too much”.Quembo added that a week earlier the head of the PODEMOS list for the Maputo City parliamentary constituency, Jose Chemane, was also attacked.“We thought it was just an attempted robbery”, he said. “But then they attacked Helder, and it became clear to us that this was politically motivated”.The attack on Helder Mendonca has been reported to the police, but so far nobody has been arrested.PODEMOS is an offshoot of the civil society organisations AJUDEM (Youth Development Association of Mozambique) which attempted, unsuccessfully, to run Samora Machel Junior, son of the country’s first President, Samora Machel, for Mayor of Maputo in last year’s municipal elections.There was considerable speculation that Machel Junior would be the PODEMOS presidential candidate this year, but he publicly denied any connection with the new party.