Chapo the changeable

Good afternoon. Does President Daniel Chapo want a dialogue, or not? He has been keeping people guessing since he took power seven weeks ago. Initial signs that Chapo was open to talks with de facto opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane failed to bear fruit; instead, he held talks only with the leaders of opposition parties, who unlike Mondlane had no influence over the nationwide protests.

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Now, despite the fact that Chapo has already unveiled a preliminary agreement with those opposition parties, signs have emerged that Mondlane might yet be called in for talks. They were revealed by the academic João Pereira, who has been advising Chapo on the discussions with the opposition. Although Pereira can no longer be regarded as an independent commentator, his proximity to Chapo means that he speaks with inside knowledge. According to today’s issue of newspaper Savana, Pereira said there were “people who are working to call [Mondlane] to the negotiating table”. He did not explicitly address why, if Chapo is keen for talks, he has excluded Mondlane from the discussions that have taken place so far. But he did hint that the conditions for talks between the two might not yet exist, without saying why. “When the fruit is green, it is not going to fall,” he is quoted as saying.


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