AG summons opposition leader over rioting
Publish date: 10 March 2025
Issue Number: 1116
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Mozambique
The Mozambican Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) has notified former Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane to appear before the institution next Monday to respond to a criminal case against him, related to the post-election riots. But, according to the Club of Mozambique, it seems that he has no intention of obeying this summons. Mondlane’s legal adviser, Dinis Tivane, confirmed receipt of the PGR notification. But he declared that Mondlane will not attend because he has gone into hiding, following the police attack last Wednesday against his motorcade, which his supporters have interpreted as an assassination attempt. Mondlane’s advisers refuse to reveal his whereabouts. According to one, as yet unconfirmed, report, he has crossed the border into South Africa. Maputo city police spokesperson Leonel Muchina claimed last Thursday that there was no attempt to kill Mondlane. As news of the alleged attempt on Mondlane’s life spread across Maputo and the neighbouring city of Matola, so did rioting. The rioting coincided with the ceremony elsewhere in the city, where President Daniel Chapo and nine political parties signed ‘a political commitment to an inclusive national dialogue’.
Earlier Chapo said the political agreement signed in Maputo provides for pardons for those convicted of involvement in crimes during electoral protests, reports the Club of Mozambique. ‘The document recognises that, in the spirit of humanism and national reconciliation, there will be room for granting pardons to certain citizens convicted in the context of the 2024 elections and violent demonstrations, under terms to be set by Presidential Decree and to be assessed on a case-by-case basis,’ announced Chapo, after signing the agreement with political groups. Chapo and the main political parties in Mozambique signed an agreement on Wednesday regarding the terms for state reforms, as part of the political dialogue to end the post-electoral crisis in the country. Although Chapo has promised on several occasions to ‘broaden the table for dialogue’ to ‘various segments of society’, one of the main criticisms raised by academics and analysts continues to be the absence of Mondlane.
