Mozambique opposition leader says hitmen targeted him in Sandton

The Mozambique opposition presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane claimed Tuesday to have escaped an assassination attempt in Johannesburg, where he has been hiding since the announcement of the disputed general election results in October.

Mondlane said in a livestream on his Facebook page that killers had tracked him down to the affluent Sandton area of the city where had been staying.

“Assassins were at my door to kill me,” he said. “I had to jump out the back door, slip out through a hair salon and run with my bags and my family.”

Mondlane did not provide any evidence for the claim.

SA’s department of international relations & co-operation told Business Day that the government had “no knowledge” that Mondlane was in the country and that the victims of any crimes should file a report to the police.

A spokesperson for the SAPS said it had not received any such report.

Mondlane’s lawyer Elvino Dias was gunned down in his car in Maputo on October 19 alongside Paulo Guambe, a spokesperson for Mondlane’s political party Podemos.

The murderers have still not been identified.

The killings occurred as Podemos was about to launch its legal challenge of the results of the general elections, which gave victory to the ruling party Frelimo and its presidential candidate Daniel Chapo with 70.67% of the vote.

Podemos claims that Mondlane won the presidential election with 53.38%, based on a parallel count of results notices posted outside polling stations.

Protests and riots against the official election results have been ongoing across the country for over two weeks. At least 11 people have been killed, the Mozambican NGO the Centre for Democracy and Development reported last week.

Mozambique is now in the middle of a “general strike” called by Mondlane to protest the election results, which began on October 31 and will culminate in a march on Maputo, which he hopes four million people will attend.