Hundreds protest as Mozambique inaugurates a new president

MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) — Hundreds of supporters of Mozambique’s opposition protested Wednesday as the country inaugurated a new president following disputed elections and deadly unrest.

Daniel Chapo took his oath as the country’s fifth president before about 2,500 people who endured intense heat in front of a city hall in the capital, Maputo. Opposition supporters peacefully protested a few meters away after security forces wielding guns and batons blocked them from getting to the venue. Security forces sealed several roads and kept a heavy presence in other parts of Maputo.

“We heard your voices before and during the protests and we will continue to listen,” Chapo said in a speech.

The 48-year-old law graduate acknowledged the need to end the instability rocking the southern African nation.

“Social harmony cannot wait, nor can the building of consensus for the matters that worry the Mozambican people, so dialogue has already began and we will not rest until we have a united and cohesive country,” he said.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Guinea-Bissau’s leader Umaro Sissoco Embaló attended the ceremony, while several other countries, including former colonial power Portugal, sent representatives.

The country’s Constitutional Council in December declared Chapo the winner of the presidential election, with 65.17% of the vote, dismissing a challenge by opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane, whom it said got 24 percent of the vote.

A series of protests and a violent crackdown by security forces following the elections have left at least 300 people, including scores of children, dead, according to local and international human rights organizations.

Mondlane, a 50-year-old pastor, has been leading the push for protests through messages on platforms such as Facebook to demand “restoration of the electoral truth.” Some western countries, including the United States, have also questiond the credibility of the elections.

He returned from self-imposed exile to a rousing welcome by his supporters on Jan. 9. Mondlane said he left Mozambique fearing for his life after two senior members of his opposition party were killed in their car by unknown gunmen in a late-night shooting in Maputo after the election. One of the men who was killed was Mondlane’s lawyer and advisor.

On Monday, Mondlane called for another round of protests against the inauguration of members of parliament and Chapo’s inauguration.

Chapo’s party, Frelimo, has ruled the country of about 34 million people since its independence from Portugal in 1975. He becomes the country’s first president to be born after independence.

On Wednesday, he described “social and political stability” as “the priority of priorities.”

Apart from the protests triggered by the disputed election, Chapo will have to contend with a seven-year-old jihadist insurgency in the oil- and gas-rich northern province of Cabo Delgado.

In addition, he inherits a country ravaged by corruption and deep economic challenges including high unemployment and frequent job strikes by civil servants such as nurses and doctors. Mozambique is one of the world’s poorest countries according to the World Bank.

“Mozambique cannot continue to be held hostage by corruption, inertia, cronyism, nepotism, sycophancy, incompetence and injustice. That’s why we said let’s get to work,” said Chapo in his acceptance speech Wednesday. He said it was “painful” that “many of our compatriots still sleep without at least one decent meal.”

He pledged a lean government by cutting down some ministries and senior government positions. That could save over $260 million, he said, promising to redirect the money toward improving the lives of people.

Some, such as Maputo-based economic analyst Evaristo Cumbane, remain skeptical.

“We are listening to the same song. The country is divided, we need to reconcile all Mozambicans first and then go for other things,” said Cumbane.