In 2015, the politics of Mozambique were largely dominated by the FRELIMO party, which had been in power since independence in 1975. The party was led by President Armando Guebuza and focused on a range of social and economic reforms, such as reducing poverty and improving access to education. The party also sought to promote Mozambique’s reputation as an emerging market, and to improve its relationship with other countries in the region. Other political parties included the RENAMO opposition group, as well as several smaller parties. See ehealthfacts for Mozambique in the year of 2005.
The 2015 election was held in October of that year and saw FRELIMO win a majority in both chambers of Parliament with 191 out of 250 seats. This ensured that they would remain in power for another five years. During this time, President Guebuza sought to implement further reforms to improve Mozambique’s economic standing while ensuring social justice for all citizens. He also worked towards improving relations with other countries in the region and strengthening ties with international organizations such as the United Nations. In 2019, he was succeeded by Filipe Nyusi following a successful presidential election campaign.
Yearbook 2015
Mozambique. During the year, political battles continued between the Frelimo government party and the largest opposition party Renamo, which demanded, for example, the sharing of power and increased influence over state companies. Renamo boycotted Parliament’s opening in January when the new President Filipe Nyusi (Frelimo) was installed. The armed parts of Renamo continued to attack government forces, in violation of the peace treaty signed by the parties last year.
In January, the country was hit by extensive floods that required at least 160 lives and made almost 160,000 people homeless. Most of the dead were reported from Zambezi Province in central Mozambique. Electricity was knocked out in several places and it became difficult to travel between the country ends when two bridges along the north-south highway EN1 collapsed due to the large water masses.
According to COUNTRYAAH, Maputo is the capital of Mozambique which is located in Eastern Africa. Mozambique and 25 other African countries agreed on a new free trade agreement, Tripartite Free Trade Area, during the year. Parliament also adopted an economic plan for how growth would be ensured through, inter alia, investments in infrastructure and the manufacturing industry, financed by coal and gas extraction.
- Also see AbbreviationFinder.org for Mozambique country abbreviations, including geography, history, economy and politics.
During the year, several deaths occurred in the capital Maputo, among other things in March when a well-known judge was shot dead on the open street. Renamo accused the government of being behind the murder because the judge had backed a proposal by Renamo to give the provinces greater autonomy. The bill was later voted down by Parliament. In mid-September, opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama was also shot while traveling in a car in the province of Manica on the border with Zimbabwe in the west. Dhlakama, who lost five presidential elections since 1994, in turn accused Frelimo of planning the act and said it had political motives.
During the summer, Renamo increased its attacks against the government forces. Renamo also threatened to block the main road connecting northern and southern parts of the country unless Frelimo agreed to their demands for power sharing. As a strategy to weaken the opposition party, the government tried to recruit soldiers from Renamo through offers of high positions in the national army. In August, the president invited talks with the opposition and at the end of the year, the militants of Renamo were invited to surrender their weapons. Renamo, for its part, announced that they wanted to create a new mediation process involving South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma.
At the end of June, new legislation decriminalizing homosexuality and abortion came into force. Among other things, the change in law meant that it is now legally legal for same-sex relationships, but LGBT activists in the country felt that more than one change in law was required to change the view of homosexuality. In August, Mozambique assumed the presidency of South Africa for the areas of politics, defense and security within the economic cooperation organization SADC, which consists of 15 member countries in southern Africa.
In September, the Halo Trust announced that Mozambique, two decades after the civil war, was now free of mines. The mine clearance was said to have had a positive impact on access to infrastructure and raw materials and increased tourism to the country.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
In Mozambique the start of a national cinema dates back to very recent times as it coincided with the period of the struggle for independence. 1975, a crucial year, in fact brought the country to liberation from Portuguese domination and the creation of the first monthly newsreels, Kuxa kanema (Birth of the image), produced by the new Instituto Nacional de Cinema (which would have been involved until 1986 also in the diffusion of films throughout the country). In this way, after the war documentaries that testified the actions of the Frente de Libertaçao de Moçambique (FRELIMO, of Marxist inspiration, active in a first phase in the armed struggle against Portuguese colonial rule and subsequently, after the proclamation of independence, single party in power), the first national films were also born, all of a political nature. Fernando Silva (owner of Almeida and Silva), who died in 1999, linked his name to Mozambican cinema with works such as: Um ano de independência (1976), description of the past under Portuguese domination; Mapai (1976), short film documenting the tension between Mozambique and Rhodesia in the early seventies; A tempestade da terra (1996), a story of friendship intertwined with the memory of repression. Collective films are De Rovuma a Maputo (1977), Vinte cinco (1977), the latter directed by Celso Luca and José Celso Martinez Correa, and Estas são armas (1980). In a cinematography in which both local and foreign directors have worked, a special place is occupied by Ruy Guerra, director of the Instituto Nacional de Cinema and author of the masterpiece Mueda, memórias e massacre (1979), which documents the annual representation of the residents of Mueda to commemorate the massacre carried out by the Portuguese in 1960. In 1977 the Conferência Africana de Cooperação Cinematografica (CACC) was established in Maputo, with the aim of organizing a distribution of films independent of the control of foreign companies, but the attempt failed. José Antonio Ribeiro Cardoso is responsible for the first fully Mozambican fictional feature film, O vento sopra do Norte (1987), set during the war of liberation. His foray into popular music is also Canta meu irmão, ajuda-me a cantar (1982). the technical structures and the film archive of the entire nation.