He added that national unity, independence and peace are noble gains that the Mozambican people achieved with many sacrifices. Nobody should call them into question, regardless of their motives.
“Unity, independence and peace are the people’s path. They are our riches”, declared Guebuza at a rally in the locality of Mepochi, in Lago district, in the northern province of Niassa. Guebuza has been on a working visit to the province, as part of his “open and inclusive presidency”.
He recalled that these gains resulted from the courage and dedication of Mozambicans who understood the need to unite their forces in order to defeat colonial rule and win independence, so that Mozambicans themselves could choose their own destiny.
Among those Mozambicans, Guebuza cited as an example Francisco Orlando Magumbwa, a native of Lago district, who became a Frelimo guerrilla commander during the independence war. He commanded a Frelimo base at Mepochi, and died in combat 40 years ago. He is now one of Mozambique’s national heroes, and is buried at the Monument to the Mozambican Heroes in Maputo.
After independence was won the white minority regimes, first of Ian Smith’s Rhodesia, and later of apartheid South Africa, plunged the country into a 16 year war of destabilisation, using as their instrument the rebel group, Renamo, which is now the country’s main opposition party.
Guebuza recalled that, following the peace agreement of 1992, Mozambicans set about rebuilding the country from the ashes of war. “Schools and hospitals were rebuilt, the electricity grid was expanded, the farms produced food and cash crops again, and day after day the people are achieving their well-being”, the President said.
“Some people don’t want these gains, this development. They want to return to war”, he said. “They forget that war brings destruction and poverty”.
He did not state specifically who he had in mind – but he was making these remarks less than two days after armed Renamo gangs had ambushed vehicles on the main north-south road, near the small town of Muxungue, setting two trucks on fire, and killing one of the truck drivers and a driver’s mate.
Guebuza urged vigilance, and the preservation of peace and national unity, because “These are the heritage of all Mozambicans, they are the wealth of the people”.
Local residents who spoke during the rally praised recent economic improvements, including the expansion of the mobile phone network to Mepochi, the construction of a new health centre, and the gradual improvement of access roads. But they also urged Guebuza to link this area to the national electricity grid, to increase the number of boreholes providing a clean supply of water, to provide an ambulance, and to speed up the provision of pensions to veterans of the liberation war.
Guebuza urged his audience to be patient, and promised that all their concerns would be met gradually, just as the gains already made were achieved in successive victories, bit by bit.
Post published in: Africa News