By PRMI reporters, 12 February 2025
The greatest mass uprising in Mozambique’s recent history took place from late 2024 to early 2025, in defiance of Frelimo’s treachery and the prospect of the party staying in power for yet another term. 8 people died in protest on the morning of Daniel Chapo’s inauguration as president on 15 January 2025. It is clear that the people of Mozambique would not get justice from either their local courts or from the regional body South African Development Council (SADC).
Observer missions from different countries agreed that there were severe irregularities during the campaigning and voting period, so it is not possible to know the true outcomes of the elections. When the initial results were announced and two opposition party officials were assassinated, revolt broke out across the country. This made it clear that ordinary Mozambicans felt that they had been cheated and sentenced to suffer under an illegitimate regime.
The assassination of Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe shortly after the elections was the final straw before mass demonstrations began, but what were the underlying factors that led to this outburst of anger in Mozambique?
Corruption, Inequality, War, and Natural Disasters
At least 60% of Mozambique’s population live in poverty, as the economy remains stagnant under the rule of a political party known for its extensive use of death squads to silence voices of opposition.
Mozambique has a long shoreline with economically viable ports that support trade in the region, allowing landlocked countries such as Zimbabwe and eSwatini to export and import various goods. Additionally, the country has vast swathes of natural resources including precious minerals and oil and gas deposits. Sadly, the proceeds from these industries only find their way to the ruling elite and their cronies.
Meanwhile, the majority of the population is forced to live from hand to mouth, or to seek opportunities for migrating to neighbouring countries in search of greener pastures.
The ruling elite in Mozambique has used every trick in the book to stay in power. Furthermore, they have been caught with their pants down when it comes to corruption, including a US$25 billion deal which benefited the president and his family around 2013/14. Through corrupt deals, the leaders of Frelimo have been able to enrich themselves at the expense of the population. A population which has never been able to fully recover from the ravages of colonialism and civil war.
Between 1977 and 1992 a disastrous civil war took place between Frelimo and Renamo which devastated the country’s productive forces and population just 2 years after gaining independence from centuries of Portugal’s colonial rule.
While the USA and South Africa supported Renamo as they viewed that group as acting in support of their interests, the Soviet Union supported Frelimo – Mozambicans suffered great losses. During those 15 years more than 6 million people were displaced and a further million lives were lost. In 2013 Renamo tore up the peace agreement signed in 1992 leading to months of renewed armed conflict which lasted until 2014. When the former president Filipe Nyusi came to power in 2015 the country was again at peace. However, from around 2017 a new wave of armed conflict broke out in the eastern regions of the country as young people from the Cabo Delgado province took up arms following an extremist religious ideology.
Although poverty does not provide a direct, mechanical link to extremism, the absence of political alternatives and opportunities for meaningful economic activity, the path towards extremism can seem like the only hope when one is desperate. Especially when considering that there are profitable gas plants in that region. As a result of capitalist logic and corruption, those areas are home to high levels of unemployment and poverty.
This means that while Mozambique’s GDP grew by 6% over a 15-year period, most of that growth was concentrated in the hands of those who were already wealthy. Inevitably, discontent grew among the poor and marginalised, making it easier for extremists to recruit from angry young people and to convince them to commit terrible acts of violence against people that are as poor as they are.
The Mozambican government under Nyusi relied on using military action to address the rise of Al-Shabaab in Cabo Delgado, inviting troops from other countries when his own troops proved ineffectual.
In July 2021, SADC intervened in the Cabo Delgado region of Mozambique by sending more than 2200 troops to fight in the area. Although the SADC troops were initially able to make some gains, paving the way for some internally displaced people to return home, these gains were later reversed as attacks resumed from the second part of 2023. In response he looked for more military assistance, particularly from Rwanda.
Unfortunately, as a result of private ownership of the country’s resources, all the profits continue to go to a handful of people.
In addition to the inequality and threats from armed conflict, people in Mozambique live in constant fear of catastrophic natural disasters, especially violent cyclones that frequently build up in the Indian Ocean and often reach the country’s eastern shores.
Even as anti-FRELIMO demonstrations were taking place in December 2024, an estimated 120 people lost their lives as a result of cyclone Chido, with a further 380,000 people being directly affected or displaced. Shortly afterwards, cyclone Dikeledi caused additional damage in January and devastated more than 15 000 households.
As the effects of climate change worsen, people living in Mozambique are set to face catastrophic conditions, ranging from droughts to extreme rainfall. This underscores why the country’s young people are horrified at the prospect of facing the future under a capitalist regime that has no solutions to provide measures to protect the interests of the masses.
October 2024 Uprising
It was, therefore, hardly surprising that protests broke out on 16 October when news broke that Frelimo had won a majority in the presidential elections.
Furthermore, it was not surprising that by 19 October there were reports of assassinations against demonstrators because Nyusi had used death squads against opponents during his ten-year reign. Although it was a shock to some that Nyusi agreed to give up his seat after the elections, it was inevitable that he would only do so if his party would remain in power, thereby ensuring that Frelimo will have been in power for more than 5 decades.
Recognising this and what it meant for their future, Mozambicans defiantly rejected the election results and took to the streets in the face of arrest, bullets,and teargas from the police and military.
The protests brought Mozambique to a standstill, by targeting power plants, ports, borders and other economic centres, rendering the country ungovernable for months. These actions had strong economic impacts on several countries including Zambia which was relying on electricity from Mozambique as it was not possible to generate sufficient power from the hydropower plants due to drought. Farmers in eSwatini were unable to export sugar cane because they relied on Mozambique’s ports and South Africa was forced to close its main border with Mozambique. It was only after these economic problems emerged that the regional body SADC chose to intervene, in order to protect their economic interests.
However, SADC’s intervention resembled yet another “talk shop” of leaders who are far removed from ordinary working-class people. These talks showed that the rulers of countries in Southern Africa are primarily concerned with consolidating their power and supporting their allies, a continuation of the process that has allowed tyranny to reign in the region for decades.
Zimbabwe is the current chair of SADC, and its president E.D. Mnangagwa came to power via a coup and has only remained there because he rigged the 2023 elections in Zimbabwe. There was no way that he would take a strong stance against the electoral fraud in Mozambique partly because he was involved in rigging these elections to defend Frelimo. Inevitably, the meeting of the heads of state from SADC supported the results of the elections, despite the protests from Mozambicans who actually have to live under Chapo’s rule!
More than 300 people died because they believed that Frelimo stole the last elections and more than 2000 households were forced to flee their homes as the police and military forces unleashed their weapons of brutality.
Presidents from SADC countries such as South Africa and Zimbabwe chose to attend Chapo’s inauguration despite the fact that the reports from the observer mission commissioned by SADC itself denounced the results of these elections. It is evident that SADC is made up of leaders only concerned with their self-preservation at any cost.
Mondlane eventually agreed to discuss with Chapo in order to join the new government, threatening a renewed wave of protests if certain demands are not met within one hundred days. However, the prospect of a continuation of FRELIMO rule is a horrible prospect to be fought against at all costs – especially for the country’s young people.
The rulers of SADC have shown their true colours and are set to face discontent and contestations from the masses in future. It is becoming clear to some sections of the working class across Southern Africa that their leaders have sold them out and have no interest in securing their wellbeing.
For example, how can South Africa support corrupt regimes in Mozambique and Zimbabwe only for the government in Pretoria to argue that migrants are the biggest problem in South Africa?
Other people in South Africa are asking why is it that South African soldiers are dying in the DRC when there are no imminent threats to the country’s security, while people in Malawi and Zambia are wondering who truly benefits from the proceeds from minerals mined in their countries? What role do the so-called “elected” leaders actually play?
Increasingly, governments across southern Africa are relying on repression to stay in power, but this does not mean that they can keep the masses quiet. They are afraid of a united working class, they are afraid of what will happen to them when the masses realise what they can achieve without them. Unfortunately for them, it is becoming easier to see that they cannot deliver a better life for all. Instead, it is becoming clearer that the struggles facing people across southern Africa are connected, and there are only a handful of rich politicians standing between us and a better life for us all.