Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) presidential candidate Daniel Francisco Chapo is set to visit Zimbabwe to meet President Emmerson Mnangagwa on July 20 ahead of his country’s elections in October this year.
Chapo (47) was nominated to succeed sitting President Filipe Nyusi, who has reached the constitutional limit of two terms.
ZANU PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa told NewsDay that Chapo’s visit is a courtesy call “as he seeks wisdom from elders”. He said:
He is visiting all former liberation movements in southern Africa. He will be meeting President Mnangagwa. There is now so much in Zimbabwe that it is attracting attention.
With Manhize (steelmaking company) now in full swing, the port of Beira will be busy. Since 1965 under the (Ian) Smith regime, the UDI [Unilateral Declaration of Independence], Beira has never had an economic lifeline such as the hinterland of Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) because it collapsed due to sanctions.
Our export route has been Durban, some kilometres away. Now with the developments by the President — steel, lithium and the general economic revival of Zimbabwe, there is a new vitality in the Zimbabwean economy and the shortest route is through Beira and we want to restore its glory.
FRELIMO has governed Mozambique since the country attained independence from Mozambique in 1975. Said Mutsvangwa:
We are sister parties with FRELIMO, so he (Chapo) is coming to learn. He needs to tap into the wisdom and historical experience of the liberation movements and the struggle against apartheid and racism.
We are going to share notes on how best Africa can put its foot forward to change the geo-political environment.
Chapo became the first “born free” FRELIMO presidential candidate, as he was born two years after Mozambique’s independence from Portugal in 1975.
He graduated in Law from the Faculty of Law of Eduardo Mondlane University, in Maputo, in 2000.
Chapo took the Conservator and Notary course in 2004 and ten years later completed a master’s degree in Development Management from the Catholic University of Mozambique.
He also taught Constitutional Law and Political Science, worked as an announcer at Rádio Miramar, in the city of Beira, and was appointed conservator for the Nacala-Porto district in 2005.
In November 2015 he assumed the role of administrator of the district of Palma, in the province of Cabo Delegado, and in March 2016 he was appointed governor of the province of Inhambane.
Mozambique will hold its seventh presidential and parliamentary elections on October 9, the second for provincial governors and the fourth for provincial assemblies.
