Good afternoon. The Mozambican government claims to have found a way forward with French energy firm TotalEnergies over the costs of its gas project and the tax it has to pay on it — although as we explain, its official statement is not true (see below). But it took three weeks for this to happen, during which it had to deal with commentators aligned with the ruling Frelimo party attacking TotalEnergies and calling them bandits and blackmailers. This threatened to limit Chapo’s freedom to negotiate with the company, and to force him into a hardline position just for the sake of political convenience. And that problem arose in the first place because someone leaked a letter from TotalEnergies to President Daniel Chapo asking for its extra costs to be taken into account and for a longer concession period for the project. None of this is to say that Chapo should just give in to the demands of TotalEnergies. But complex negotiations are not conducted by shouting slogans like “bandits” through a megaphone.
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The lesson of all this is that Chapo still does not have very widespread support within his party. There are still plenty of party figures with loud voices and power who are willing and able to make trouble for him by promoting views that disagree with, or threaten to derail, government decisions.
