Afonso Dhlakama, a former rebel leader turned opposition leader who is contesting the Mozambican presidency in polls on Wednesday and Thursday, swears that his bloody past is well and truly behind him.
”I love peace, African music, my family and my country,” he once said. ”I do not like to speak about war because war is not good for Africa.”
Born on New Year’s Day 1953 in the central province of Sofala to a traditional chief, Dhlakama studied accountancy in the country’s second city, Beira.
Between 1971 and 1973 he served in the Portuguese colonial army and in 1974 signed up as a member of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) which was fighting Portuguese rule.
He was put in charge of logistics in his home province but in 1977 he abandoned the group to form a rival rebel body, the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo). Many said the split was along ethnic lines.
The nascent grouping, backed by apartheid South Africa, then launched a bitter war against Frelimo which espoused Marxist ideals — a red rag to Pretoria’s racist regime which was bitterly opposed to communism.
From 1977 to 1979, Dhlakama was vice-president of the rebel movement and deputy commander-in-chief. He took over the top leadership of Renamo in late 1979 following the death of the movement’s leader, Andre Matsangaissa, who was killed in battle.
He led the guerrilla movement until the signing of a peace agreement in Rome in 1992 which ended a 16-year war that devastated the economy and left one million dead.
Dhlakama then transformed Renamo into a political party and under his leadership it took part in Mozambique’s first multi-party democratic elections in October 1994. The run-up to those elections was marked by inflammatory rhetoric but little actual violence.
Both he and his party lost the elections and he unsuccessfully tried to grab for his party candidates the gubernatorial posts in six of Mozambique’s 11 provinces and then boycotted parliament for seven months.
This was despite the fact that the Supreme Court, international observers and former US president Jimmy Carter had pronounced the polls free and fair.
Renamo has been crying foul again ahead of the upcoming elections by accusing the ruling party of planning to rig the polls.
Dhlakama, who faces four rivals in the presidential polls, including Armando Guebuza — the ruling party candidate chosen to succeed President Joaquim Chissano who is stepping down after 18 years in power — has repeatedly evoked his ”stolen victory” in the last elections.
”Again, vote for me and Renamo like you did in 1999, although your votes were stolen,” he said.
Dhlakama has also pledged to end disparities between the economically backward north and the rich and industrialised south.
”Renamo is an instrument capable of changing the regional development imbalances, restore freedom and justice, and reduce poverty,” he said.
Dhlakama’s support base lies in the centre and the north and is spread over half of the country’s provinces.
The former rebel leader has won international recognition for abiding by the 1992-peace agreement and for Renamo’s active role in the country’s reconciliation programme. – Sapa-AFP