Published on 19/12/2024
Governments of South Africa and Mozambique announced on Wednesday that they would be stepping up security measures to mitigate the impact of the electoral protests in Mozambique, considering that there is a “risk of food and energy insecurity”.
At a joint press conference at the end of a high-level meeting lasting almost three hours in Malelane, in the South African province of Mpumalanga, the two countries agreed on measures to “jointly mitigate the disruption” at entry points, “particularly Lebombo and Ressano Garcia”, said South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola.
“The ministers agreed that both countries will endeavour to protect and ensure infrastructure for trade facilitation and continued collaboration to ensure minimum disruption to regional integration, including associated cross-border value chains,” said the South African minister.
Mozambique’s Interior Minister Pascoal Ronda, who led the Mozambican delegation, said that “the meeting emphasised that these disruptions have had a significant negative impact on the economies of both countries and the free movement of people and goods between the two countries”.
“Many companies have suffered losses due to the interruption in trade, and if the situation persists, there is a great risk of food and energy insecurity,” he emphasised.
Questioned by journalists, Pascoal Ronda also said that the current post-election political situation facing the government of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo, in power since 1975) was also “appreciated” at the high-level meeting with Pretoria.
“It was appreciated here because there was no other way but to touch on what is happening in Mozambique, which also affects South Africa economically, so we made a general assessment here of what is happening, which stems from the elections that have taken place, and essentially after the 10% of the count carried out by the CNE,” he emphasised to journalists at the press conference broadcast on social media by the South African government.
“We talked about it, we explained it, we clarified it, and right now, we’re waiting for the Constitutional Council to make its final judgement based on the available data so that it can communicate to all Mozambicans, to the region and to the world, what the historical-political place of each of the candidates and each of the political parties is, in the next few days we’ll be attentive to hear this result,” said the Mozambican interior minister.
In addition to the head of South African diplomacy, the meeting was attended by the heads of the Ministries of Defence, Home Affairs, Trade and Industry, Transport, the South African Revenue Authority (SARS), and the Border Management Authority (BMA).
According to a source from the South African government who told Lusa, the Mozambican government delegation was led by the Interior Minister, Pascoal Ronda. It included the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Manuel Gonçalves, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Mateus Magala, the First Deputy Commissioner of Police, António Bachir, the Director General of the National Migration Service (SENAMI), Mariano João Arlindo, and the Director of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Industry, Claire Mateus Zimba.
At least 130 people have died, and 385 others have been shot in post-election demonstrations in Mozambique since 21 October, according to the Decide Electoral Platform, which monitors electoral processes in Mozambique.
Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane has called for protests to contest the results of the 9 October elections announced on 24 October by the National Electoral Commission, which gave victory to the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) in the legislative elections and to its candidate, Daniel Chapo, in the presidential elections.
