Mayor of Matola resigns

Cited in Wednesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, the chairperson of the Matola Municipal Assembly, Antonio Matlhaba, confirmed that he had received Nhancale’s letter of resignation on Monday.

Matlhaba added that the Municipal Assembly will meet in extraordinary session, probably next Monday, to deal with Nhancale’s resignation and its consequences.

Nhancale’s letter says he has resigned for reasons of “force majeure”, without explaining what these reasons are.

Under the legislation on municipalities, it is the job of the Municipal Assembly to verify the death, incapacity or resignation of the mayor. A mayoral by-election is then held, if the Mayor leaves office more than a year before the next full municipal elections.

In this case, Nhancale only had another six months before the end of his term of office. There will therefore be no by-election, and the chair of the Municipal Assembly should perform the mayor’s duties. The next municipal elections, held on a national scale, will take place on 20 November.

Although the Municipal Assembly approved the report on the performance of the Municipal Council under Nhancale, the Frelimo City Committee apparently disagreed and passed a motion of censure against the mayor in March.

Although this motion could not force Nhancale to resign, Frelimo General Secretary Filipe Paunde noted at the time that it was “not a good sign” for Nhacale’s chances of remaining at the head of the municipality.

In 2011, the mayors of Quelimane, Cuamba and Pemba all resigned, apparently on instructions from Frelimo, thus forcing by-elections in those three cities. This backfired against the ruling party since, in the largest of these municipalities, Queimane, Manuel de Araujo, the candidate of the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), won the by-election.