Maputo, Nov. 8, 2024 (Lusa) - South African supermarket chain Shoprite has temporarily closed its stores in Maputo and ‘other high-risk areas’ due to the post-election demonstrations, which on Thursday led to the looting and vandalisation of two shops in the capital.
Contacted by Lusa, the South African chain, which has almost 30 stores in Mozambique, explained that ‘concerns for the safety of employees and customers remain extremely important’, that the ‘situation is being closely monitored’ and that ‘the shops will reopen as soon as it is safe to do so’.
‘We are concerned about the senseless acts of malicious damage that put other people's livelihoods, lives and safety at risk,’ a source from the supermarket chain told Lusa.
During Thursday's protests, called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, two telecoms and furniture shops in the shopping centre that Shoprite owns in the centre of Maputo were vandalised and looted by more than a hundred people, according to a security guard on site, who told Lusa the same day.
In the centre of the city, on Avenida Acordos de Lusaka, people, including children, broke down the railings and smashed the windows, taking TVs, mobile phones, printers, and even fridges. Most of them took refuge in the city's old Bullring next door, which was turned into a housing estate several years ago.
At the scene, as Lusa witnessed, a strong contingent of police tried to stop the looting and pursued the perpetrators. Several arrests were made at the same time as police were shot at and tear-gassed while they recovered some of the looted material from a floor littered with open, empty mobile phone cases.
The announcement by Mozambique's National Electoral Commission (CNE) on 24 October of the results of the 9 October elections, in which it awarded victory to Daniel Chapo, supported by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, the party in power since 1975), with 70.67% of the votes in the election for President of the Republic, triggered popular protests called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane.
According to the CNE, Mondlane came second with 20.32%, but the latter said he did not recognise the results, which still must be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council.
Following street protests that brought the country to a standstill, Mondlane once again called on the population for a seven-day general strike starting 31 October. Nationwide protests and a demonstration in Maputo were previously called for Thursday, 07 November.
Venâncio Mondlane, who does not recognise the announced results of the 9 October general elections in Mozambique, announced on Thursday that the protest demonstrations would continue until the electoral truth is restored.
At least three people died, and 66 were injured during clashes between demonstrators and the police on Thursday, the eighth day of the strikes called by Venâncio Mondlane, the Maputo Central Hospital (HCM), the country's largest facility, announced on Friday.
‘Yesterday, the 7th, [Thursday] we admitted 138, he acknowledged, of which the adult emergency room had 101 patients. Of the 101 patients, 66 were victims of these demonstrations, and the rest were due to other causes,’ said the director of the HCM Adult Emergency Service, Dino Lopes, in statements to the media.
He also said that at least three people lost their lives on Thursday as a result of the demonstrations.
‘Of the 66 injured, 57 were possibly caused by firearms, four by falls, three by physical aggression and two by bladed weapons,’ added the director of the HCM Adult Emergency Service.
PVJ/ADB // ADB.
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