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The Conflict with Renamo, 1976-1992
«April 1985»
Dossier MZ-0020
62. The Bandits' Objective is Recolonisation, Machel Tells Rand Daily Mail
Above : The front page headline of the last issue of the liberal South African newspaper the Rand Daily Mail, featuring an interview with Samora Machel by Benjamin Pogrund and José Caetano.
In an interview with South African journalists from the about-to-close-down Rand Daily Mail, President Machel began by acknowledging the newspaper's commitment to the idea of non-racial democracy. It was the responsibility of the South African government to comply with the terms of the Nkomati Accord; in addition, the armed bandits represented only "death, destruction, famine, brutality and hate". Socialism only means food, education and health services for everybody, and the participation of everybody in decision making.
A propaganda broadcast by "Radio Truth" claimed that Renamo was now mounting "in excess of 250" operations a month, and that recently a group of 450 fighters had infiltrated "the environs of Maputo itself".
On 20 April forty people were killed in an MNR attack near Boane.
Above: Several poor quality images of handwritten documents of Paulo Jemusse Gandanga Sithole, a RENAMO commander in Gaza province. The documents are mainly transcripts or summaries of messages sent between 5 September 1983 and 25 May 1984. The context is more fully explained in the article “Auto-retrato do banditismo” by António Makwala, published in the news-magazine Tempo (28 April 1985), p.22-25, which is included in the dossier available below. The images are taken from the article. Click on the images to download larger size JPG versions.
Click on the yellow folder image below to download an unsorted zipped archive of documents and press clippings in PDF format concerning the conflict between the Mozambican government and the MNR/Renamo in April 1985.
