The president of the Mozambican Bar Association (OAM), Carlos Martins, warned that the general demonstrations taking place in the country have already evolved and reached the stage of social revolt, calling on the presidential candidates to create conditions for dialogue in order to end the scenario of insecurity.
‘We usually ask where the Mozambican President is, but he is less than 35 days away from leaving office and is often not the element that unites Mozambicans. At the moment, it’s the contenders who are the uniting element and they should sit down and show a way forward,’ he suggested.
Speaking during a meeting in Maputo, Martins said that the body he heads is available to play its leading role in the legal harmonisation of any political agreement that may arise from planned meetings between the presidential candidates.
“A demonstration is usually ideological, but social revolt is not, so it doesn’t obey the legal rules and that’s what’s happening.There is an unequal distribution of wealth in the country, a lack of financial, economic and social inclusion criteria and clear policies to help the most disadvantaged”
‘The players need to sit down, talk and come to an understanding, and then there is a role for the Bar Association in trying to ensure that these consensuses are in accordance with the law or if there is a need to make any changes to suit the national interest,’ he emphasised.
The lawyer added that ‘a demonstration is usually ideological, but social revolt isn’t, so it doesn’t obey the legal rules and that’s what’s happening. There is an unequal distribution of wealth in the country, a lack of financial, economic and social inclusion criteria and clear policies to help the most disadvantaged.’
‘We know the problems we have in the area of natural resources, especially the lack of information and the concession contracts are often not known to people, there is secrecy about them and a conviction is created that there is a fringe that is taking advantage of these concessions,’ said Martins.
Carlos Martins also warned that ‘the police are not prepared to deal with social unrest without resorting to violence’, emphasising that they are not prepared, they don’t have the means or the guidelines on how to deal with demonstrations.
Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane called for a new phase of electoral contestation lasting a week, from 4 to 11 December, in ‘all the neighbourhoods’ of Mozambique, with a halt to traffic from 08h00 to 16h00.
