Good afternoon. The sight of riot police driving out former guerrillas of opposition party Renamo from the party’s national headquarters using rubber bullets and tear gas marks a new low for the unhappy party. Any party that thinks it has to resort to riot police to deal with complaints from its own activists is in serious trouble. If the heavy-handed police intervention (even rubber bullets are dangerous, and it was irresponsible to use tear gas in such a busy part of the city of Maputo) was the idea of the party leadership, that is even worse. It is also deeply ironic, considering how party leader Ossufo Momade has condemned the behaviour of the UIR riot police in the past.
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Although party leaders might object to the tactics of the ex-guerrillas, which consist of occupying buildings and demanding the resignation of Momade, their grievance is legitimate, which is that the party risks sliding into irrelevance. True, Renamo has always been irrelevant to some extent in a country where only the ruling Frelimo party is allowed to win most elections. But the national and provincial elections last October, in which Renamo lost more than half its seats in parliament and came third in the presidential election, underlined the existential threat faced by the party.
