Good afternoon. For the second time since the elections last month, people within opposition party Renamo are calling for the head of Ossufo Momade (see below). In fact, the protest is probably unnecessary: Momade looks likely to resign as Renamo leader before long anyway, though not until after the controversy over the elections has calmed down, according to a report from the NGO the Centre for Public Integrity last month.
The truth is that Momade never wanted to be Renamo leader. He was persuaded to take over from Afonso Dhlakama after the latter died in 2018, initially as interim leader and then permanently, by self-interested people who wanted to see activists from Zambézia and Nampula provinces gain jobs and influence, at the expense of the party’s traditional base of Sofala province.
When Venâncio Mondlane was seeking to challenge Momade for the Renamo leadership earlier this year, Momade was inclined to allow him to do so, but senior party figures would not tolerate the idea and persuaded him to stay on, while the party wrote rules for the leadership election that excluded Mondlane.
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From the Zitamar Live Blog:
Come the election campaign, Momade put in a creditable performance, but it was not enough to stop Mondlane from sweeping up opposition votes as well as taking votes from ruling party Frelimo. As we have noted before, Renamo and Momade did not really look like they wanted to win, but neither did they want to lose so badly. Being reduced from 60 to 20 seats in parliament is a humiliation, and one which will reduce the amount of money and jobs available to party activists.
