Keesing's Record of World Events (formerly Keesing's Contemporary Archives),
Volume 29, December, 1983 Mozambique, Page 32538
© 1931-2006 Keesing's Worldwide, LLC - All Rights Reserved.
Fourth party congress-Cabinet reshuffle-Relations with South Africa-MNRM actions
Summary and key dates
Fourth congress of ruling Frelimo party (April 26–30, 1983). Reorganization of Council of Ministers (May 21 and 28). South African raids on alleged ANC targets in Maputo (May 23; Oct. 17).
The fourth congress of the ruling Frelimo party (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) was held in Maputo (the capital) on April 26–30, 1983, its agenda as outlined by the Frelimo national conference in March 1982 [see page 32118]. The congress, which was attended by 650 delegates (including Mr Robert Mugabe, the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, and Mr Oliver Tambo, the president of the African National Congress of South Africa), was notable for its emphasis on the campaign to improve levels of agricultural production, the decentralization of decision-making, the expansion in the size of the central committee and a considerable degree of self-criticism. [For Frelimo's third party congress in 1977 which marked the beginning of its transformation into a Marxist-Leninist vanguard party, [see 28619 A.]
The outgoing central committee, which presented its report to the congress on April 26–27, admitted that since 1977 population growth had outpaced increases in agricultural and manufacturing production. Having stated that peasant agriculture had been “marginalized’ and that support for family farmers was “virtually non-existent”, the report recommended that immediate priority should be given to combatting hunger by helping both small family farms and large private farms, and that the development of agricultural co-operatives should be viewed as a medium-term objective. In the next five years, the report declared, state farms should ‘reorganize and consolidate” instead of expanding, with the aim of increasing productivity and making better use of existing machinery.
The central committee urged that resources in industry and agriculture should be diverted away from large development projects and towards small projects which brought an immediate return, with priority to be given to making better use of industrial capacity and local raw materials. The report also criticized the extent to which state administration had been centralized and declared that local and district councils should be given more control of budgets, plans and small development projects.
The congress defined the task of the production councils, whose role had been criticized by Mr Mario Fernandes da Graca Machungo, then the Minister of Planning and Agriculture, in 1980 [see page 31330], as dynamizing, deepening and consolidating workers’ unity, promoting their active participation in planning, management and control of production and organizing the workers in the fight against sabotage by the “class enemy”.
The congress resolved to launch and intensify the struggle against indiscipline, corruption and ignorance which, it said, still existed among the workers (although the head of one Maputo neighbourhood council-who was elected to the central committee—declared that the offensive against government corruption had “died’). (For launching in 1980 of a campaign against government inefficiency, bureaucracy and corruption, see 30611 A.] The congress also called upon all state bodies to do everything possible to implement the “economic and social directives” in order to overcome the most elementary signs of hunger, to defeat the ‘armed and unarmed bandits” and to eliminate the black market.
The party's central committee was increased from 55 to 130 members, and the balance of power was shifted away from the ministers, provincial governors and military commanders, who had previously constituted a majority, towards the peasants, workers and veterans of the guerrilla war. Only 12 members of the old central committee were not re-elected, but most of the new members came from the provinces and few of the newcomers were members of the new elite of technocrats and managers. The party's political bureau remained unchanged, save for the addition of Dr José Oscar Monteiro, then the Minister of State for the Presidency (and interim Governor of Gaza province—see page 32118)., who became its 11th member.
At a rally in Maputo on May 21 President Samora Machel declared that Mozambique had “erroneously developed a hostile attitude to private enterprise’ and that the country should “undertake a profound reorganization starting with the Government itself”. Consequently, President Machel reallocated several important portfolios on May 21 and carried out a further reshuffle on May 28, when he announced the creation of a new Ministry of Economic Affairs and that he himself would ‘assume the leadership” of the Defence Ministry (although Lt.-Gen. Alberto Joaquim Chipande remained Minister of Defence).
As a result of these changes, the Council of Ministers was composed as follows (with any previous responsibilities shown in parentheses):
Maj.-Gen. Joaquim Alberto Chissano / Foreign AffairsLt.-Gen. Alberto Joaquim Chipande / Defence
Lt.-Gen. Armando Emiléo Guebuza (Armed Forces Political Commissar and Resident Minister in Sofala Province) / Interior
Maj.-Gen. Mariano de Araújo Matsinhe (Interior) / security
Lt.-Gen. Sebastiao Marcos Mabote / Chief of General Staff and Deputy Defence Minister
Maj.-Gen. Jacinto Soares Veloso (security) / Minister in the President's Office for Economic Affairs
Mr Mārio Fernandes da Graca Machungo / Planning
Dr José Oscar Monteiro (Minister of State for the Presidency) / Justice
Dr Rui Baltasar dos Santos Alves / Finance
Mrs Graca Simbine Machel / Education and Culture
Mr José Luis Cabaco / Information
Mr Pascual Manuel Mucumbi / Health
Mr José Carlos Lobo / Mineral Resources
Mr Rui Jorge Gomes de Lousa / Posts, Telecommunications and Civil Aviation
Mr Júlio Zamith Carrilho / Public Works and Housing
Mr Joaquim Ribeiro de Carvalho / External Trade
Mr Joao Ferreira / Agriculture
Mr Antonio José Lima Rodrigues Branco / Industry and Energy
Mr Luis Maria Manuel Alcantara Santos (Ports and Land Transport) / Ports, Railways and Merchant Marine
Mr Manuel Jacques Aranda da Silva / Internal Trade
*No change. (For previous Cabinet changes, see A; A.; For full list after reshuffle,[see A.]
**New appointment.
***Formerly given as Mr Manuel Jacques Caranda da Silva.
Mr Ribeiro de Carvalho had previously been Minister of Agriculture until his dismissal from both the Council of Ministers and the Frelimo central committee in August 1978 [see 29340 A]. Mr Lobo had been Mozambique's permanent representative at the United Nations since shortly after independence in 1975.
Several senior ministers and party leaders were appointed as provincial governors in addition to their existing responsibilities, including Maj.-Gen. Marcelino dos Santos, the party secretary for economic affairs, who was appointed to the strategically important Sofala province; [see map on page 31327] Lt.-Gen. Chipande and Mr Machungo, who were appointed respectively to the Cabo Delgado and Zambezia provinces; and Mr Sergio Vieira, the former Minister of Agriculture [see 31500 A], who was appointed Governor of Niassa province.
President Machel also announced on May 21 that an unspecified number of government officials would be moved from central administration in Maputo to posts at local levels in agriculture, industry and provincial administration.
A joint statement, issued on the weekend of June 18–19 by the Ministries of Defence, Interior, Justice and security, ordered the unemployed to leave the cities by the end of the month, after which stringent measures would be taken and a rigid pass system enforced to keep “unproductive people” from returning to the urban areas. It was estimated that about 100,000 people would be expelled.
After only 200 unemployed people had voluntarily registered by the end of June, the authorities used more coercive methods, including house-to-house searches and street checks, to seek out the unemployed, who were subsequently sent home to their villages, to state farms or to work camps. It was reported in the Western press that the ill-prepared announcement had led to a chaotic situation where workers were forced to spend many hours queuing for cards registering their employment.
In a report published on Aug. 31 Amnesty International, the human rights organization, alleged that the Mozambique Government was contravening fundamental human rights in its arbitrary use of the death penalty for political and non-violent offences. [For reintroduction of death penalty in 1979 and subsequent modifications [see pages 30612; 32117.]
Amnesty International noted that 70 people had been executed in Mozambique in the past 4 1/2 years for offences including politically motivated kidnappings, agitation against the state and crimes against humanity during the conflict between guerrillas loyal to the Mozambique National Resistance Movement (MNRM) and the Government. The report stated that most of the trials were held in camera and before military judges; (ii) that defendants were sometimes refused access to legal counsel; (iii) that the death penalty for certain crimes had been introduced retroactively and with no effective right of appeal; and (iv) that on several occasions in 1983 prisoners had been “summarily excecuted without receiving any form of trial’ in what amounted to ‘a particularly serious violation of fundamental human rights”.
The South African Air Force conducted a raid into Mozambique on the morning of May 23, using Impala jet fighters to attack six alleged African National Congress (ANC) targets in the suburbs of Maputo, in retaliation after a ANC car bomb attack on the air force headquarters in Pretoria on May 20.
The bomb in Pretoria exploded during the afternoon rush hour, killing 19 people (including Black and White civilians as well as air force personnel) and wounding about 200. The ANC office in Lusaka (Zambia) declared in a statement on May 21 that “the escalating armed struggle imposed on us as a result of the apartheid regime will make itself felt among an increasing number of those who have chosen to serve in the enemy's forces of repression’, and on May 23 the ANC” military wing, the Umkhonto we Sizwe, formally claimed responsibility for the bomb attack.
Gen. Magnus Malan, the South African Defence Minister, said on May 23 that the retaliatory attack on Maputo “could never compensate for the cowardly bomb attack in a busy central area of Pretoria’ but that it would ‘at least demonstrate to the world and South Africa's enemies that South Africa (was) ready to act where and when necessary”. [For South African commando raid in January 1981 against alleged ANC headquarters in Mozambique see page 30889.]
Gen. Malan identified the six targets as the ANC command headquarters, where orders were issued for sabotage by and the briefing of guerrillas; “September House’, which was used as a headquarters for planning guerrilla actions in the rural areas of Transvaal province; “Gubaza's House”, where plans were drawn up for urban terrorism in Transvaal; ‘Maincamp”, at which the guerrillas stayed in transit before infiltrating into South Africa; and two logistical headquarters responsible for the supply of weapons and explosives.
The ANC office in Lusaka (Zambia) denited on May 23 that the organization had any military bases inside Mozambique and added the following day that the only way to “truly honour these victims of aggression [was] by intensifying our offensive within South Africa”.
A South African Defence Force [SADF] spokesman on May 24 declared that South Africa was “satisfied that the places hit were allocated to the ANC and were occupied by terrorists”, and he added that 17 Mozambican soldiers and six civilians had been killed as well as 41 ANC members. However, the Mozambican authorities claimed that only six people (three workers, a soldier, a pregnant woman and a child) had been killed and 40 wounded, almost all Mozambican citizens.
Journalists who were shown around the suburbs of Liberdade, Matola and Sial on May 24 reported that there was nothing to indicate that the targets of the South African raid were of military significance, and moreover the main damage was reported to have been inflicted at the Somopel jam factory in Matola, which was attacked just as workers were arriving in the morning. The SADF on May 24 condemned what it called “the attempt of the Government of Mozambique and the propaganda media to dismiss this attack as if it were directed against civilians”, but a SADF source admitted on the following day that the jam factory and a businessman's home had accidentally been shot up as a result of an overshoot on the only ANC target which escaped the South African jet fighters.
The South African raid was condemned internationally by both Western countries and the Soviet bloc, but Maj.-Gen. Chissano, after a meeting in New York with Sr Javier Perez de Cuellar, the UN Secretary-General, stated on May 24 that Mozambique would not ask for a UN security Council session to be called “because we have other ways to respond to provocations”. He declared that his Government would continue to support the ANC, but denied that Mozambique was in any way connected with ANC attacks inside South Africa.
In a further attack early on Oct. 17, South African forces destroyed an ANC office situated in a residential block in Maputo; Gen. Malan described the raid as “pre-emptive” and maintained that acts of terrorism had been planned, controlled and supported from the office.
The South African raid came a week after a series of explosions on Oct. 10 at Warmbaths (60 miles north of Pretoria) which had damaged petrol storage tanks, railway wagons and a petrol tanker, and responsibility for which was attributed to the ANC; in the same incident two “limpet” bombs which had been attached to the door of the municipal office in Warmbaths were discovered and were removed and detonated safely.
In a statement issued on Oct. 17 the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office deplored the “serious violation of Mozambique sovereignty’ involved in the South African raid, adding: ‘We condemn this raid by South African forces just as we condemn the bombing incident in South Africa last week.”
In addition to the South African raids on Maputo in May and October, other incidents which further strained relations between the two countries included the impounding of a South African trawler, allegations of a plot to assassinate President Machel, the defection of a South African soldier and the shooting down of a pilotless South African reconnaissance plane.
The Morning Star, a Durban-based trawler, was impounded in Maputo harbour on April 12 and its captain, Mr Peter Davids, was subsequently fined for fishing illegally inside Mozambique's 200-mile economic zone, although the trawler's owners and crew were under the impression that they could fish legally outside Mozambique's 12-mile territorial waters.
AIM, the official Mozambique news agency, reported on April 24 that government troops had intercepted a group of South African agents on April 19 in the Namaacha district inside Mozambique and captured a quantity of explosives before the intruders fled.
Mr Pieter Benjamin Schoeman, describing himself on Mozambique television as a South African military intelligence officer, a helicopter pilot and an artillery instructor, on May 2 alleged that he had been sent to Mozambique on a mission planned by the South African National Intelligence Service as part of a plot to assassinate President Machel during Frelimo's fourth party congress. Mr Roelof F (“Pik”) Botha, the South African Foreign Minister, on May 5 criticized the Mozambique Government for spreading false allegations and stated that Mr Schoeman was a habitual criminal who had disappeared in 1982 after being released on parole. At a meeting with Maj.-Gen. Veloso, then the Mozambique security Minister, (also on May at Komatipoort, on the border between the two countries, Mr Botha insisted that the Mozambique authorities should publish a correction to the allegation that Mr Schoeman's claims were proof of South African plans to destabilize Mozambique. (For previous ministerial meeting at Komatipoort in December 1982, Mr Botha stated in the House of Assembly on May 10 that he had pointedly asked the Mozambique authorities how many other false stories had been disseminated about South Africa's alleged role as a “destabilizer”, and he warned neighbouring states that if they continued “to harbour terrorists there could ‘be no hope of peace in southern Africa”.
Mr Louis le Grange, the South African Minister of Law and Order, stated on June 14 that the capture on June 11–12 of two ANC guerrillas infiltrating into South Africa was confirmation that the Mozambique Government was continuing to harbour the operational headquarters of the ANC's military wing.
AIM reported on May 29 that Lt. Gerald Andreas Eckert, a South African Permanent Force soldier, who had defected to Mozambique two days earlier, had asked for political asylum. (Lt. Eckert later attempted to re-enter South Africa to visit his estranged wife and baby daughter, but was arrested by military police at Jan Smuts airport near Johannesburg on Dec. 6, and a military spokesman said he would be charged with desertion.)