Around 2010, when people watched political debates on Soico TV, one of the most watched private channels in Mozambique, they often saw a young forest engineer and bank employee who could brilliantly articulate the country’s problems.
He was Venâncio Mondlane, a distant relative of Eduardo Mondlane, the first president of Frelimo (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique). Venâncio’s family supported the liberation movement that led Mozambique to independence from Portugal in 1975. However, his biting criticism suggested that his sympathies were not with the ruling party.
Today, Venâncio Mondlane finds himself at the center of the worst political crisis that has upended Frelimo’s fifty-year rule over Mozambique, the resource-rich but impoverished southern African country of 35 million.
He claims to have been robbed of a victory in the presidential and parliamentary elections of October 9, 2024. According to the country’s election body, Daniel Chapo (47) of Frelimo won with more than 70% of the votes, and Mondlane (50), a independently supported party. of the small Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), lagged behind with 20%. The country’s highest court subsequently upheld Frelimo’s victory, but adjusted the figures to 65% for Chapo and Mondlane to 24%.
Popular protests broke out after the first election results. The elections were considered fraudulent by national and international observers.
The protests, which Mondlane led from a secret hideout abroad via online platforms, brought the country to its knees: the borders with South Africa were blocked, with major economic consequences for both countries. Thousands fled. Frelimo’s headquarters were destroyed. Above all, Mozambicans seemed to have finally lost their fear of the repressive authorities.
The response from the outgoing government of President Filipe Nyusi was harsh: no to the call for a repeat of the elections. She responded to the protests with deadly force.
Mondlane and Mozambican political dynamics
I specialize in the politics of Lusophone Africa, in particular Mozambique. During my years of research, I have built privileged relationships with key political players, allowing me to deeply understand Mozambican political dynamics.
I interviewed Venâncio Mondlane in Maputo in 2014 for research I was conducting on the collapse of the Mozambican political system. My concept of political risk attempts to explain how Frelimo manipulated the electoral process to maintain political power.
Since independence in 1975, Mozambique has been ruled by Frelimo, a Marxist-Leninist party that converted to unbridled liberalism in the early 1990s.
In recent years, since the death of Afonso Dhlakama in 2018, the historic leader of Renamo, the largest opposition party, it was difficult to see a concrete political proposal from Frelimo and Renamo on how to solve the development problems and the poor economic situation dissolved.
Mondlane has stepped in to fill the vacuum.
Early years
Born in Lichinga (Niassa province, Northern Mozambique) in 1974, Mondlane has long been a militant civil activist. In 2000 he was particularly active in helping people affected by the floods in Gaza Province, southern Mozambique.
In the following years he continued various social and cultural initiatives. In 2013, he was the only young person from Portuguese-speaking African countries to be included in the International Leadership Program promoted by then US President Barack Obama.
These civil society experiences helped shape Mondlane’s political vision beyond party politics.
He later became a pastor of an African evangelical church. And he used social networks to undermine Frelimo’s old party-state system.
Mondlane’s political program includes greater economic liberalization and institutional reforms to achieve the separation of powers. He also calls for concrete steps to combat poverty and promote human rights – from freedom of expression and the press to housing for young people.
He admires former Brazilian far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro. He also appears close to the positions of Chega, a far-right party in Portugal. Lately, however, he seems to have moved closer to liberalism. In short, his political vision is a mixture of populism, humanism, innovation and real knowledge of the issues, which contrasts with Frelimo’s corrupt practices.
Municipal elections
Mondlane started his political journey in 2013, when he joined the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM). This was a new political party founded by Daviz Simango, a son of former Frelimo vice-president Uria Simango, in 2008. He broke the alliance with Renamo’s Dhlakama.
The new party won the municipal elections in Beira, the fourth most populous city, and loomed as the biggest threat to the Frelimo party-state’s power system.
Mondlane was the new party’s mayoral candidate for the municipality of Maputo, the capital. He and other young politicians managed to achieve significant results in the 2013 municipal elections.
The MDM also won other important cities, such as Nampula and Quelimane. In some municipalities it obtained 30% to 40% of the seats.
But Simango won the mayoralty of Maputo – without the staggering majorities that Frelimo had always achieved in local elections. The election process was mired in controversy.
In the 2014 interview, Mondlane protested bitterly that he had won the municipal elections but had been cheated.
Calling the youth
In the following years, Mondlane became a powerful figure on the Mozambican political scene, building on the mistakes of Frelimo and Renamo.
Dhlakama had seen a leader in Mondlane who could potentially replace him in the long term. At a meeting in Gorongosa in 2017, where Dhlakama led the second war between Renamo and the Mozambican government, Mondlane dumped the Democratic Movement of Mozambique – at the beginning of its downward spiral – and switched to Renamo. He was assigned to lead that party’s political front in the south, especially in Maputo, as Mondlane himself recalls.
However, when Dhlakama died in May 2018, the party fell to Ossufo Momade, an army general with little political experience and no clear leadership qualities. He started a relationship with Mondlane that was immediately one of distrust.
In 2023, Mondlane was Renamo’s candidate for mayor of Maputo. After a groundbreaking election campaign, in which he won the support of young people and women, Mondlane appeared to triumph in the capital’s municipal elections.
His rise was also aided by the sudden death of Mozambique’s most famous rapper, Azagaia, in 2023. Youth outraged by Frelimo’s power system, who had found in Azagaia’s words one of the few means to express their anger, found in Mondlane a replacement. to express their political concerns.
He led the demonstrations in Maputo after Azagaia’s death. He could be seen leading groups of slightly frightened youths, singing Azagaia’s famous tunes, including the hit Power to the People.
Mondlane perhaps realized then that Mozambicans needed a mature and courageous political leader. He became Renamo’s candidate for the leadership of the Maputo municipality.
By then he had become pastor of the African evangelical church Ministério Divina Esperança. In this way he managed to combine the appeal of the church with the desire of young people for salvation and social justice. This united three fronts – religion, Renamo and the young followers of Azagaia – into an electorally explosive cocktail.
Return from exile
The controversial 2024 elections propelled Mondlane to national and international prominence. He embarked on a diplomatic mission to gain support from the West and African institutions. The main objective of this mission was to gain the trust of the international community and expose the high level of fraud in the 2024 elections.
His supporters and lawyers also filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court over the Mozambican police crackdown on pro-Mondlane protesters, which left many victims.
This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit organization providing facts and trusted analysis to help you understand our complex world. It was written by: Luca Bussotti, Universidade Tecnica de Mozambique (UDM)
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Luca Bussotti does not work for, consult with, own shares in, or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
