The unexpected resignation of the abrasive former Mozambican president, Armando Guebuza from his position as president of Frelimo’s Central Committee has been largely welcomed in Mozambique. As Menas Associates’ Mozambique Politics & Security highlights, the event strengthens new President Filipe Nyusi’s hand while also likely being a welcome development for Western investors.

Guebuza was in combative mood as he opened the Central Committee meeting held from Thursday 26 to Sunday 29 March, condemning “the behaviour of certain comrades”, whose public pronouncements “generate division and confusion at the heart of Frelimo”. But his aggressive attempt to remain in his position backfired and he ultimately resigned on 29 March. Guebuza was replaced by the President of the Republic Filipe Nyusi.

“Guebuza’s dream turns into a nightmare”, reported a gleeful Canal de Moçambique, the leading anti-Frelimo newspaper. “Nightmare of nightmares between comrades”, said Zambeze, another strident opposition voice. Canal’s front page, of a duck waddling off into the sunset below a triumphant one-word headline, ‘Adeus!’, summed up the public mood.

Guebuza’s departure has been welcomed across the political spectrum in Mozambique. Whoever people voted for in October 2014, almost all were glad that Guebuza’s name was not on the ballot. The investor community, who had grown accustomed to doing business with Guebuza, and are nearly always wary of change, were merely relieved to have clarity over who is in power, no doubt looking forward to a new era of transparency and honesty.

The recent scandal of Guebuza’s dealings with ENI’s former chief executive (see Mozambique Politics & Security – 10.03.15) brings into focus the fact that the Nyusi government – featuring among others the respected Finance Minister Adriano Maleiane and Energy and Natural Resources Minister Pedro Couto – is expected to be far better suited to an era of much tighter anti-corruption legislation in Europe and the US. Under Guebuza, Mozambique had started to become a jurisdiction where American and European companies found it increasingly difficult to do business, and they had steadily been leaving investment in the country to companies from the BRICS group of countries.

That ambivalence towards Mozambique should now change, provided Nyusi sticks to his promises of a more modest and transparent government. With Guebuza’s political position weakened, people such as Agriculture Minister Jose Pacheco, who is closely associated both with the former president and previous corruption accusations, will be looking over their shoulder. Some expect Nyusi to purge the remaining Guebuza supporters left in the government sooner rather than later. By doing do, Nyusi will be able to institute a government which he has chosen — not merely as a means of satisfying the different factions within the ruling party — but one which can implement his own vision of the future. During his first months in power, the quiet Nyusi, who some perceive as weak, has managed to strengthen his own political position in a discreet manner.