Gideon Ndobe has been elected the new secretary general of Mozambique's Association of Veterans of the National Liberation Struggle (ACLLN) during a meeting of the organization's national committee held on Tuesday in the northern city of Nampula.
The meeting was held specifically to elect a successor to Rafael Maguni. Maguni, who was also a member of the ruling Frelimo party's Political Commission, died in Maputo in February in a traffic accident.
According to a report in Wednesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias", Ndobe collected 90 of the 120 votes, decisively defeating his nearest rival, retired general Eduardo da Silva Nihia, who only won 17 votes. There were two other vandidates, Jose Mulatinho, who won six votes, and Jaime Massesse, who won four.
After the election, Ndobe presented his new secretariat, mostly new faces, including Valentina Mutumuke, Raul Guezimane, and Roque Vicente, while maintaining Amos Mahanjane, from the previous staff.
Speaking of his priorities as the new leader, he pledged that his immediate task is to address the variety of problems the veterans are currently facing.
For his part, Marcelino dos Santos, a former deputy president of Frelimo, said that "the Veterans' Statute (the document outlining their rights and duties, and passed by parliament four years ago) must be finally implemented in order to dignify the role of the freedom fighters, and it is urgent that the government grants the money this involves".
"There should be no hesitation. There must be money to support the people who gave the best of themselves and their youth to liberate this land", dos Santos added.
Addressing the opening session of the Tuesday meeting, Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano said that the parliamentary passage of the Veterans' Statute, in 2000, created the legal basis for valuing the fighters' sacrifices to liberate the country.
"It was on this basis that the Fund for the Social Insertion of Veterans (FISAC) was created and preparations are underway to enforce it, which is expected to happen soon", he said.
Chissano also announced that the updating of the association's membership cards is under way, and the deadline has been extended to submit applications for pensions, "which will benefit about 11,000 members".
Fonte: AIM
