Good afternoon, and welcome to the final issue of this newsletter for 2025. We’ll return on 5 January 2026.
In the event of major breaking news, we may publish on our website or on our Telegram channel, which you can find here: https://t.me/zitamarlive
Thank you to all our readers for staying with us over the ten years of our existence. That’s right — Zitamar is 10! We soft-launched at the end of November 2015, before a harder launch in January 2016. Just in time for one of the most momentous years in Mozambique’s recent history…
Zitamar is now transitioning into a new era, with editor in chief Tom Bowker following his co-founder Leigh Elston in stepping back from an editorial role, almost five years since their departure from Mozambique. Zitamar’s editorial team is now led by Fernando Lima, with analyst Tomas Queface, reporters Alexandre Nhampossa and Amade Abubacar, and editors Rene Lavanchy and Tavares Cebola.
The full Daily Briefing continues below for Pro subscribers. Subscribers to the Zitamar News tier can read the top half, including the full leader article, here.
We appreciate your continued support and wish you an excellent festive season and a great year ahead.
And please consider subscribing if you haven’t already. In the current climate of shrinking development budgets, more than ever it is our subscribers that keep Zitamar on the road.
Now, on to today’s Leader!
President Chapo’s first State of the Nation address will be remembered less for what it promised than for what it chose to display. In an unusual move for such a solemn occasion, the president projected images of last year’s post-election protests to the assembled deputies — a deliberate staging of national trauma. The message was unmistakable: Mozambique was a victim of sabotage, assaulted by “violent, illegal and criminal” unrest, and the government’s task has been one of emergency management rather than governance.
