PROTESTS

WOMEN AND YOUTH DEMAND GOVERNMENT LISTENS


Hundreds of peasant women marched on the district town of Matutuine on 23 October, to demand that the government implement the land law to guarantee their right of access to land. (Noticias 24 October 2008) Matutuine is in the far south of Mozambique and close to the capital, and has been the focus of some of the most serious land conflicts – particularly between peasants and government officials.


Meanwhile, young people told government officials to stop lecturing them and start listening instead, in outspoken statements at the Second National Youth Encounter, in Cheringoma, Sofala, in late October. Borges da Silva, vice president of the National Youth Council, said government officials should not come to meetings like this as presenters and working group chairs, because this inhibits young people from giving their points of view. National directors just come to give orientations, which stops the young people from expressing their own ideas. The gap was made clear when the Ministry of Youth and Sport said it had implemented the recommendation of the First National Youth Encounter in Chokwe, while the National Youth Council said nothing had been done to implement their recommendations. (Noticias 27 October 2008)


COMMENT: In diplomatic circles in Maputo, there are many comments about the way Frelimo is said to be increasingly curbing debate and restricting opposition voices, and this is clearly true in some places. But there is less comment on an equal and opposite trend for farmers, business people, women and youth to be more outspoken and critical of government – and for these complaints and protests to be more often reported in the government-owned daily, Noticias, than in the private press. SOURCE HANLON 2008 (Joseph Hanlon)