MOZAMBIQUE - PRESIDENT GUEBUZA'S TWO-WEEK VISIT TO

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SUBJECT: MOZAMBIQUE - PRESIDENT GUEBUZA'S TWO-WEEK VISIT TO
THE SOUTHERN BACKCOUNTRY


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1. (U) Summary: President Guebuza recently completed a
two-week trip to rural districts in southern Mozambique.
Hopping from point to point by helicopter, he addressed
rallies and listened to local concerns in some of
Mozambique's most isolated communities. His message --
"together we can win the fight against poverty." At each
stop he spoke of a new GRM program to channel to each
district every year seven billion meticais (approximately USD
250,000) to fund local initiatives. Fighting rural poverty
was the central plank of Guebuza's 2004 election campaign; no
doubt Guebuza sees the trip as delivering on this pledge.
Judging from the enthusiastic throngs at each stop, including
some who traveled considerable distances to meet him, so do
many rural residents. The visit also gave Guebuza a chance
to showcase to provincial voters the FRELIMO government's
attentiveness to their concerns in advance of the country's
first-ever provincial level elections next year. Summary.


2. (U) President Guebuza, with several ministers and the
press in tow, visited by helicopter the provincial capitals
and a dozen rural districts in the four southern provinces of
Gaza, Inhambane, Manica and Sofala over the period March
16-31. Some of the districts in southern Manica provinces --
where the epicenter of the February 23 earthquake was -- and
western Inhambane are among the most isolated in the country.
There he inspected earthquake damage and promised more
government support. Elsewhere he inaugurated schools,
visited clinics, reviewed irrigation schemes, looked over
agricultural projects, strolled through local markets and saw
firsthand the inadequate to non-existent road, electricity,
water and telecommunications infrastructure. At every stop
he was met by welcoming crowds (with dancers in some
instances) whom he addressed in "open government" fashion,
inviting members of the audience on to the podium for their
questions.

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Fighting Poverty
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3. (U) His main message to the people was "together we can
win the fight against poverty." He spoke of government
programs underway to meet peoples' needs and boost living
standards -- a new credit line for some rural communities,
the expansion of the national electricity grid, more funding
for roads, schools and water, and relief supplies for
earthquake, flooding and drought victims. He gave more
emphasis, however, to urging his audience to be more
resourceful, and to not expect that the government alone
would bring progress. Mozambique had extensive untapped
natural resources, he told them, and the people only had to
look around themselves, in some instances, to supply their
needs. Moreover the central government often did not know
the best answer, meaning local experience and expertise
should be the guide. This shift in thinking was borne out at
some of the stops. In Sofala, the governor demonstrated how
local sources had financed projects to use annual floods for
small-scale reservoirs and irrigation systems. In Panda,
Inhambane province, Guebuza witnessed how three local
investors had started a livestock business to supply milk and
meat, toured two projects involving small-scale foot pumps to
irrigate fields and learned of new agricultural associations.
(Note: In many stops he reminded the crowds of the enormous
challenge posed by AIDS, calling on them to act responsibly
and mentioning limited government assistance. But his focus
at meetings during the trip, essentially, was on combating
poverty. End note.)

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Funding District Governments
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4. (U) Since taking office a year ago, Guebuza has emphasized
the importance of district governments. To help district
authorities to provide more leadership in local development,
the GRM will sweeten the pot. During his trip Guebuza
announced that the GRM will allocate, each year, seven
billion meticais (approximately USD 250,000) to each of
Mozambique's 128 districts to fund local initiatives. (Note:
This works out to about USD 32 million. End note.) Also,
in keeping with guidelines laid out by the GRM last November,
each district now has "consultative councils" (composed of
traditional leaders, civil society representatives and local
officials) as part of the district administration. Guebuza
told his audience that these councils are designed to reflect

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local input, giving the populace more of a say. Moreover, in
so far as they also will help oversee proper use of funding,
they will, according to Guebuza, serve as a check on
corruption. At all of his district-level stops he made a
point of meeting with newly established consultative councils.


5. (U) Guebuza invited his listeners to voice their concerns,
saying that he had come to listen. Many complained about the
effects of prolonged drought, others about localized heavy
rains or flooding that had washed away roads and cut them
off. At one stop he heard complaints of low cotton prices,
at another concern that traditional fruit trees had been cut
down to grow tobacco. Some mentioned corrupt local officials
and frustration over bureaucratic delays. One very common
issue was the hardship caused by higher fuel costs, which
affected everything from transport to pumping water to power
generation.

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Comment
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6. (SBU) Guebuza made eradicating rural poverty the central
plank of his 2004 "electoral manifesto," and doubtless sees
this trip as a step forward in delivering on this commitment.
One of Guebuza's stops was at Chibabava, the district where
Afonso Dhlakama, the leader of the main opposition party,
RENAMO, was born, and another at Beira, Mozambique's second
largest city, which is run by RENAMO. By visiting
traditional RENAMO strongholds and promising some help,
Guebuza has done a bit of politicking. He probably hopes to
exploit the initiative to boost district authority, an
initiative donors hope will lead to greater decentralization
of power, for political purposes, too. Overall, the visit
gave Guebuza a chance to showcase to provincial voters the
FRELIMO government's attentiveness to their concerns in
advance of the country's first-ever provincial level
elections next year.
La Lime