MORE PROMISES FROM MAPUTO CANDIDATES

Maputo, 6 Nov (AIM) – On the third day of campaigning for the 19 November municipal elections, the candidate of the ruling Frelimo Party for mayor of Maputo, David Simango, promised that, if he wins he will reorganise the sprawling informal market of Xiquelene, while his sole opponent, Eduardo Namburete, of the former rebel movement Renamo, promised to set up a municipal funeral agency.

Xiquelene is not a municipal market, but just a large area of wasteland that has been taken over by informal vendors, and over the years has become tolerated by the authorities.

Visiting Xiquelene on Thursday, Simango insisted that people should not be selling on the streets outside the market. “This market needs to be organised”, he said. “People selling outside should be brought into the market, so that they do not disturb the normal life of citizens”.

He said that his election manifesto envisages building a landfill not far from Xiquelene to minimise the health problems caused by piles of market garbage.

He saw for himself the difficult conditions faced by hundreds of Mozambicans trying to make a living by selling goods in an area which lacks all the basic conditions for being a market. It was raining, and so Simango could see the lack of drainage, the mud and filth and sodden rubbish that threaten the health of people buying and selling in Xiquelene.

“Today’s rain is a blessing, since it allows us to understand the real difficulties of daily life in this market”, Simango told the reporters covering his campaign. “We understand the need to improve the conditions for the Mozambicans who try to find a way to survive here”.

Meanwhile, Namburete, speaking in the Polana-Canica neighbourhood, promised to set up a municipal funeral agency to end “burials without human dignity”.

Currently funeral services are provided by private companies. Poor families cannot afford to pay for these services, and so when their relatives die, they are buried in a common grave. Namburete noted that often these corpses are buried in nothing more dignified than a plastic bag.

The dead, whether rich or poor, have the right to be treated as human beings, insisted Namburete. “Christian that I am, I will not allow human beings to go on being treated in this way”, he said.

Asked by AIM how he would make good on his promise to create more jobs in the city, Namburete promised a package of incentives for companies willing to provide useful work for Maputo residents.

The business class must feel motivated, if it is to believe that it is part of the plans to develop the city, he added.
(AIM)