The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Monday heard two radically different versions of the riots that struck Maputo and Matola on 1-2 September.Speaking at the formal opening of a parliamentary sitting, Margarida Talapa, head of the parliamentary group of the ruling Frelimo Party, condemned the violence used by the rioters. But her opposite number in the former rebel movement Renamo, Angelina Enoque, claimed the disturbances were “demonstrations” by “the people”.“Instability and violence are not good counselors”, warned Talapa. “They frighten and drive away foreign and national investors, they disturb production and the creation of wealth, they damage the image of the country, and in the end they cause losses to the Mozambican people”.She condemned the violence which had led to “loss of human life, heavy material damage, a halt to the normal functioning of schools, hospitals, factories, filling stations, shops and transport, and consequent absenteeism from work”.Talapa blamed the international financial crisis for the country’s current difficulties. “Globalisation”, she said, “has generated considerable inequalities between states and between individuals, with effects on the generalization of poverty”. No one state on its own could solve the problems that had arisen.“This is certainly a difficult moment for us”, she said. “To overcome it, we need to believe in ourselves, in our capacity, our labour and our intelligence”.She praised the measures taken by the government immediately after the riots “in search of sustainable, equitable solutions, and respecting our traditions of social justice”.These measures include a bred subsidy and a freeze on wages and allowances for senior state officials. These are temporary measures, and Talapa urged the government “to take structural measures, seeking to reposition the country’s economy, and to alleviate the pressure on many households caused by the current cost of living”.All stakeholders in society, and not just the government, had a responsibility to reduce the cost of living – essentially by increasing production. “Only by increasing production and productivity will we be able to lower prices”, claimed Talapa.For Enoque, however, the riots were the price the government paid for “lying” about the economy and for a “fictitious” balance of payments. She claimed that “social inequality, the lack of clear social policies, arrogance, abuse of power, and lack of respect for human dignity”, had all contributed to the disturbances.“The people said ‘enough!’, the people came onto the streets, seeking assistance to be heard”, she claimed. “The people found in the demonstrations a way of solving their problems”.She even claimed that the riots occurred because the people had been denied the right to strike. Renamo thus seemed unaware that only people who work can go on strike – and the bulk of the rioters were unemployed. Enoque attacked the police for using real bullets, rather than rubber ones, “not to repress the demonstrators, but to kill them”. She claimed this showed that the government does not want a competent, properly equipped police force that can defend the public.“The police should be held responsible for the deaths”, she said. “The government should at least compensate the victims of the police behaviour, which results from lack of training in the use of lethal weapons”.Enoque claimed that, through the riots, “the people fought and won. The government retreated because the people’s action was strong. The strength of the people is invincible”. In fact, the vast majority of the citizens of Maputo and Matola did not riot, and their lives were severely disrupted by those who did. Enoque appeared to disqualify them from forming part of “the people”. The second opposition force in parliament, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), did not romanticize the riots. The leader of the MDM parliamentary group, Lutero Simango, argued that the government’s anti-poverty drive is not having the desired effect, and that poor households are getting poorer.This, together with rising unemployment, and the lack of policies to stimulate food production, was among the reasons that led to the September disturbances, Simango said.As for the bread subsidy and other government measures taken in response to the riots, he said the government should not act “as if it were a fire brigade”.Furthermore, these have costs “not envisaged in the state budget”. Simango therefore wanted Prime Minister Aires Ali to explain how the government intended to pay for them. If the government was altering the 2010 budget approved by the Assembly, said Simango, then it had the responsibility to communicate this to parliament by submitting amendments to the budget.
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