Mozambique’s president has spoken of inclusion in Mozambique in order to promote dialogue and cooperation between the government and the opposition Renamo. As Mozambique Politics & Security demonstrates, talk of inclusion may not be seen as completely genuine and there is a level of mistrust towards President Nyusi within Renamo. As the president talks of dialogue, Frelimo party members use strong and negative discourse to describe Renamo, making an agreement difficult to broker.

4 September marked the first anniversary of the cease-fire accord between the government and Renamo signed ahead of last year’s elections, while 7 September was a more significant date, as the 41st anniversary of the Lusaka Accords at which Portugal agreed to hand over power in Mozambique to Frelimo, in 1974. To mark the second occasion, President Filipe Nyusi travelled to Tete – his second visit there in as many months. His return to the province in such short order must have been motivated by it being the scene of the greatest tensions with Renamo, with fighting having led to hundreds of refugees fleeing to Malawi in recent months.

What should have been a day of national unity and celebration, others noted, turned into a Frelimo jamboree in Tete. The local branch of Renamo was not invited, according to local parliamentarian Félix Assomati, who told CanalMoz that Nyusi ‘talks of inclusion, but in practice promotes exclusion’. The local Movimento Democrático de Moçambique (MDM) – the third largest party – representatives also said they had not been invited.

Nyusi gave a strong speech in Tete, condemning those whom he accused of trying to profit from dividing the country. Nevertheless he stopped short of pointing the finger directly at Renamo – leaving that to Sergio Vieira, a respected former Frelimo minister of security and veteran of the war of liberation. He accused Renamo of ‘terrorism’ – echoing harsh comments made by Frelimo party spokesman Damiao Jose on Friday 4 September in Maputo.

Frelimo appear to be using a kind of ‘good cop-bad cop’ tactic with Renamo – Nyusi acts as the good cop who is open to dialogue, while others in the party are given licence to take a much harder line. Renamo’s Muchanga told confidencial.co.mz, a newly-launched news website run by investigative journalist Luis Nhachote, that Jose’s words reflect what Nyusi says ‘when he is with members of the political commission’, the organ in charge of Frelimo party policy – suggesting that Renamo see Nyusi’s approach as being insincere.

Speaking again in public on 8 September, Nyusi’s ‘good cop’ routine was again in evidence at a national meeting of religious leaders in Quelimane (Zambezia Province). The president said he was confident that a meeting between him and Dhlakama would happen soon, adding that he is sure that ‘our brother’, Dhlakama, ‘craves peace’, and will – like Nyusi – ‘do everything to allow Mozambicans to benefit from this precious home.’