How Frelimo betrayed Machel’s dream

SAMORA Machel, the leader of Mozambique’s liberation movement and the country’s first president, stood before a euphoric crowd 46 years ago at Machava Stadium and declared the independence of Mozambique.

He inspired the country’s people to imagine and build a new nation in which development, social justice, solidarity with – and care for – the oppressed took centre stage.

Four decades later, Machel’s declarations ring hollow. His words and the new dawn they heralded have since disintegrated.

The declaration of independence in 1975 proclaimed a social contract that contained the ideals of freedom. These included economic and social justice, eradication of hunger and poverty, health and education for all, equality of all people regardless of ethnicity, race and gender, emancipation of women, the rule of law and human rights.

But Frelimo has squandered the enormous political capital it enjoyed at independence. The party remains in power by using violence, intimidation, harassment and threats. Generalised lawlessness characterises Mozambique today.

Governance crises and deep-rooted corruption permeate all aspects of political, economic and social life. Popular discontent with the Frelimo government is on the rise. This explains the armed conflict in central and northern regions. Renamo’s 16-year war of destabilisation consisted of acts of terrorism that produced profound psychological trauma.

The war of destabilisation and natural disasters created the need for foreign aid. Working with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Frelimo introduced structural adjustments in 1987. The programmes involved widespread privatisation of state-run companies, massive lay-offs and unemployment and cuts in government spending on social services. The cost of food, water, housing, electricity, transport and telecommunications went up. Poverty and inequality increased.

Local rural communities have been dislocated and impoverished. The transfer of the Afungi peninsula in Palma district, where the French company Total has been constructing its liquefied natural gas infrastructure, was marked by government threats, intimidation, coercion and lack of transparency.

In the declaration of independence, Frelimo proclaimed that the new government would fight and eliminate all the “faces of colonialism and underdevelopment”. These included diseases, illiteracy and hunger. It said health services network would be extended throughout the country. Frelimo also promised to promote the spread of education at all levels.

These promises have not been met. Corruption is rife. An egregious example was the revelation of the country’s biggest ever financial scandal in 2016. Senior government officials acquired secret and illegal loans from Switzerland’s Credit Suisse International and Russia’s VTB Capital. It later emerged in court that more than US$17 million had been paid in bribes to the Frelimo party and two serving ministers at the time – defence and finance.

The ideals of the struggle for freedom outlined in the 1975 declaration of independence are lost and forgotten.

Frelimo has made a mockery of the ideals of liberation. Mourning, not celebration, is suitable for the occasion.