Mozambique: Destruction By Rioters in Nampula Schools

Maputo — Rioters have destroyed 137 classrooms in 64 schools in the northern Mozambican province of Nampula, according to a Friday report on the independent television station, STV.

Much of the coverage of the post-election riots concentrated on the disruption to the roads in and around Maputo and the neighbouring city of Matola. But riots affected the north of the country too.

Rampaging gangs destroyed libraries, school administrative offices, and furniture. The excuse for the rioting was accusations of fraud in the results from the 9 October general elections. But supporters of Venancio Mondlane, who claims that he won the presidential election, did not bother to explain what the destruction of schools has to do with the election results.

The STV cameras showed that, in the 22 August Secondary School in Nampula, the rioters had set fire to the room where the school library had once functioned, destroying everything it contained.

All the desks in the classrooms were removed and destroyed. Even the blackboards were systematically ruined. The windows were smashed and even the floor was ripped up.

This scenario was repeated in the other schools targeted by the rioters. Nonetheless that Nampula Provincial Directorate of Education insists that the 2025 school year will begin on time, on 31 January, in all the province’s schools.

But the enormous scale of the destruction means that many more classes that usual will be held in the open air.

Meanwhile, many schools and health units are barely functioning, due to the strike called by trade unions claiming to represent workers in the public administration. The strike has been called to demand payment of the New Year bonus, known as the “13th month’, since it is equivalent to an extra month of the basic wage.

The strikers claim this bonus is a right. But in fact it is no more than a tradition, and employers, including the government, have no legal or contractual obligation to pay it.

Neither the unions nor the government have issued any figures on how many people are on strike.

Special exams are being held for 10th and 12th grade pupils in the secondary schools – but the striking teachers are refusing to supervise them. The managers of some schools have recruited local government officials (such as block heads), and even pupils from the night course to supervise the exams. Even more controversially they have recruited supervisors from the Mozambican Youth Organisation (OJM), the youth wing of the ruling Frelimo Party.

The teachers in these schools are not giving way – according to STV, they say that as long as they do not receive, not only the “13th month’, but also overtime payments, they will take no part in the exam supervision.

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In several Maputo health units, STV found nurses and other staff on strike, in violation of basic medical ethics. At the health centre in the Malhangalene neighbourhood, reporters found the doors closed. Some staff were there, but refused to attend to patients. They were not even providing minimum care, which is a legal obligation.

The director of the Mavalane General Hospital, Mario Jacob told STV that only 20 per cent of the staff had turned up for work. “This is very serious’, he said. “We are only operating with the emergency and hospitalisation services’.

“If there is only one nurse for 80 or 90 patients, the service is clearly very bad, and I can’t lie about that’, said Jacob.

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