Dissidents seek to overthrow Renamo leadership

The dissident group is headed by the little known figure, Vitano Caetano Singano. Interviewed by the independent television station STV, Singano said his movement plans to remove the current Renamo leadership and form a strong coalition of opposition parties capable of defeating the ruling Frelimo Party.

Singano, who was born in Marromeu in the central province of Sofala, said he has been a member of Renamo for 30 years.

“Our leader, Afonso Dhlakama, died (in May 2018) when a coalition had already been approved around a single opposition candidate for the 2019 presidential elections”, claimed Singano. He said the extra-parliamentary opposition parties had approached the current Renamo leader, Ossufo Momade, on 11 June 2019 with a letter supposedly left by Dhlakama, which proposed an opposition coalition around a single opposition candidate for the presidential elections due in October of that year.

This is the first time such a latter has been mentioned, and there is no proof that it ever existed. Singano said the opposition coalition would only be for the presidential election of 2019 and not for the parliamentary elections.

But Momade had no interest in shackling Renamo to a group of tiny extra-parliamentary parties. “We understood that he didn’t want unity, he wanted the dispersal of votes”, said Singano. “Since he doesn’t want union, we shall follow the ideals of Dhlakama”.

Singano’s new party calls itself “Democratic Renamo”. He said it was formed “by members who have become fed up with the current image of Renamo. Our partners in Africa and in Europe are waiting for things to happen at the grass roots”.

He claimed that the dissidents have support within the Renamo parliamentary group, but “because of the law”, they were unable to show their faces.

Singano said his movement has 128 district delegates, and he will prove their existence in visits he plans to make to the central provinces of Tete, Manica and Zambezia.

He said he will formalize “Democratic Renamo” at the Ministry of Justice with the signatures of more than 10,000 supporters. “My target is 20,000 signatures”, he said, “and this is possible. On the day that we deliver the documents, we shall call the press to show you”.

The Renamo national spokesperson, Jose Manteigas, told STV that Singano had once been a member of the Renamo National Political Commission, representing young Renamo members. But he left Renamo about ten years ago and subsequently tried his luck with other, smaller opposition parties.

 
Singano joined the PDD (Party for Peace, Development and Democracy), set up by the former number two in Renamo, Raul Domingos. But he then moved on to a more significant organization, the MDM (Mozambique Democratic Movement), led at the time by the Mayor of Beira, Daviz Simango.

Manteigas said that more recently Singano was detained for the illegal possession of firearms. The guns came from an earlier dissident group, the “Renamo Military Junta”, which now seems to have collapsed.

Manteigas claimed that “Democratic Renamo” was set up “by enemies of our party”, who regarded Renamo as “an inconvenience”.

“We all know that Renamo has enemies”, he said. These unnamed enemies were using Singano’s group “to create instability”.

Singano admitted that his movement’s flag resembles the Renamo flag, but he thought this was justified because “we have to value the ideals” of Renamo’s first two leaders, Dhlakama and his predecessor Andre Matsangaissa.

But Manteigas warned that Singano’s use of Renamo symbols and names is illegal, and measures will be taken to stop it.

(AIM)