The Mozambican capital woke up today with little traffic, on the first day of the new phase of demonstrations called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, but as the morning progressed, shops began to open and transport was running normally.
In a tour carried out by Lusa throughout the morning throughout all the neighborhoods of the capital, there was no demonstration, and practically all of the previous days led to police intervention, who fired shots and threw tear gas to disperse the protesters.
If in the early morning the movement was reduced, shortly afterwards, in a scenario of almost normality in the capital, gradually the few businesses that decided not to open began to operate, bringing the usual rush of people and traffic to the city.
Transport is also operating normally, but police and military reinforcements are visible in several neighborhoods, albeit reduced compared to previous days.
Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane called for a new period of national demonstrations in Mozambique, for three days, starting today, in all provincial capitals, including Maputo, contesting the electoral process.
"We are going to demonstrate at the borders, in the ports and in the provincial capitals (...). We are going to paralyze all activities so that they realize that the people are tired", appealed on Monday Venâncio Mondlane, regarding the "fourth stage" of challenge to the October 9th general election process.
A protest that asked to be extended to the country's ports and borders, and to the transport corridors that connect these infrastructures, calling for truck drivers to join: "We don't force anyone to join the demonstration. We pass on the values of the demonstration and whoever wants to join" .
The general commander of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM), Bernardino Rafael, said on Tuesday that there needs to be "enough" with the demonstrations and strikes, saying that they are "urban terrorism" with the intention of "altering the constitutional order".
"It is urgent to say enough is enough to the violent demonstrations that tend to sabotage major projects that the country achieved during independence and that are the hope of the coming generation", declared Bernardino Rafael.
Mozambican businesspeople estimated on Tuesday at 24.8 billion meticais (354 million euros) the damage caused in ten days of strikes and demonstrations called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, with 151 business units vandalized.
"With these demonstrations accompanied by the stoppage of economic activity, we found that the commerce, logistics and transport sectors were the most affected, with the total losses and impact on GDP (Gross Domestic Product) totaling 24.8 billion meticais (354 million of euros), which are around 2.2% of our GDP", declared the president of the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), Agostinho Vuma.
The Mozambican Public Ministry (MP) has already opened 208 criminal cases to hold the "moral and material" perpetrators of violence in post-election demonstrations responsible, the Attorney General's Office (PGR) also announced on Tuesday, holding the presidential candidate responsible Venâncio Mondlane.
The PGR says that, within the "scope of its constitutional and legal powers", the MP "has been initiating legal proceedings, aiming at the criminal liability" of the "moral and material" perpetrators, and "accomplices of these acts".
"To date, 208 criminal cases have been launched, in which homicides, bodily injuries, damages, incitement to collective disobedience, as well as conjuration or conspiracy to commit a crime against the security of the State and violent alteration of the rule of law have been investigated. ", says the text.
Mozambique, and especially Maputo, the capital, have experienced interruptions in activities and demonstrations called since October 21 by Venâncio Mondlane, who does not recognize the results of the general elections announced by the National Elections Commission, which give victory to Daniel Chapo and the Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo, party in power).
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