Mozambique’s newly elected President, Armando Guebuza, on Wednesday took over the reigns from long-serving leader Joaquim Chissano with a pledge to step up the fight against poverty, bureaucracy and corruption.
”We want to bring about a more accelerated rhythm towards a better future, which translates in a sharp reduction of poverty,” Guebuza said in his inauguration speech in Maputo.
Guebuza (62), a former independence war veteran, was voted into power during presidential and parliamentary elections on December 1 and 2 last year won by the governing Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo).
He took over from Chissano, who stepped down after 18 years in power during which he negotiated an end to a vicious 16-year civil war in 1992 that claimed up to one million lives.
Guebuza said the Southern African nation has made great strides since the end of the war in reducing high poverty levels.
”The victories and results already obtained reinforce our conviction that we can overcome poverty in Mozambique,” said Guebuza, who pledged to establish basic social and economic infrastructures ”in order to make the rural areas more productive”.
He accepted office in front of thousands of Mozambicans and several foreign guests, including South African President Thabo Mbeki, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and President Jorge Sampaio of Portugal, the former colonial ruler of Mozambique.
Guebuza also vowed to root out corruption and bureaucracy within government departments.
”All these hurdles need to be overcome so that our march towards development goes unhindered.
”The dynamism that we wish to bring about in the provision of services is incompatible with the level of bureaucracy and apathy that characterises the attitude of some officials,” Guebuza said.
”Within days, we will announce the government that will have the mission of implementing our vision,” he added.
Before formally handing over power, Chissano (65) called on the people of Mozambique to support his successor.
”I appeal to all the Mozambican people to get around our president and his plan, giving him all the support and encouragement given to me and my government,” Chissano said.
Frelimo, in power since independence from Portugal in 1975, won a landslide victory in the December elections, garnering 160 seats in the 250-member Parliament.
A former veteran of the war for independence from Portugal who became one of Mozambique’s richest men, Guebuza won nearly 64% of the vote, compared with almost 32% for the opposition candidate Afonso Dhlakama, according to the final results.
Mozambique’s opposition initially cried foul and vowed to challenge the results of the vote but it conceded defeat in mid-January, saying it would take up its 90 seats in the Parliament.
Dhlakama, leader of the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) party, a former rebel movement in the 1976-1992 war, said that ”for the sake of stability and contributing to the consolidation of democracy, we will take our places” in Parliament.
Dhlakama also claimed to be the rightful winner of Mozambique’s first two multiparty elections in 1994 and 1999. — Sapa-AFP