Mozambique’s rulers woo the people again

Press, 15 October 1982, Page 8

Mozambique’s rulers woo the people again

By lAIN CHRISTIE, of NZPA-Reuter Maputo

Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo party has begun a serious effort to re-establish its popular base and end the inroads of its guerrilla enemies.

The campaign started at the beginning of the month when 11 leaders of the Frente de Libertacao de Mocambique and groups of assistants fanned out into the country’s 10 provinces to generate discussion and debate in advance of Frelimo’s fourth congress in April.

A Politburo member, Mario Machungo, in charge of the thrust in central Manica Province, told the party faithful that members must listen to the problems of ordinary people and try to solve them.

Behind the campaign appears to be a feeling among the leadership that in Mozambique’s seventh year of independence the Marxist party has seriously lost touch with its grassroots. Diplomts in Maputo, the capital, says this may have strengthened the guerrilla movement, forcing Frelimo into action to win back lost ground. The Government has promised to distribute arms among the population of 10 million, in the cities and countryside, to combat rebels of the Mozambique Resistance Movement, which it says is armed and trained by neighbouring South Africa. It has also pledged to tackle severe shortages, of food, clothing, transport, and housing even if this, entails significant shifts in economic policy. The Government had at first invested heavily in mechanised State farms

which, according to some foreign experts, have often proved unprofitable. New policy places the emphasis on peasant co-operatives with the freedom to choose their own crops, production targets and farming methods. The R.N.M. has been fighting the Government of Presi-

dent Samora Machel since 1976, less than a year after the Portuguese colonialists left. Its operations have increased in recent months and it is now creating widespread disruption in central and southern regions. Western diplomats in Maputo say that the Government’s best hope bf counter-

ing the rebels is through a combination of military and economic measures. Mr Machel took direct control of the struggle in the middle of this year. He told a party central committee meeting last month that Frelimo had scored successes since independence in spite of what he called an undeclared war by South Africa, Mozambique’s powerful neighbour. He pointed to advances in education, agriculture and industry, but warned: “These successes are still fragile.” He said that Mozambique ‘ still suffered a huge shortage of skills, a legacy of Portuguese colonialism which had left 95 per cent of Mozambicans illiterate. With a frankness that frequently impresses Western envoys, officials acknowledge that they have created many of their own headaches. “Our biggest problems are our own shortcomings" one said. Frelimo’s ideological secretary, Jorge Rebelo, said that many party cells, grouping more than 100,000 people across the country, had engaged only in sporadic and disorganised activity. They had failed to work among the masses and had tended to drag along behind the leadership. Local party workers must act as leaders, encouraging villagers to initiate smallscale development projects, he said. The “trust-the-people" campaign theme is aimed equally at undermining the R.N.M.. referred to by officials as the Kizumba (Hyena), by the Government as, “armed bandits, recruited, trained, equipped, transported and commanded” bv South Africa.