The Southern African Development Community (SADC) says it is exploring ways to protect regional trade routes and energy corridors from disruptions in the wake of political disturbances.
This is part of the lessons learnt from the ongoing post-election violence in Mozambique.
Mozambique descended into chaos after the disputed October 9, 2024 election, where ruling Frelimo party candidate Daniel Chapo was declared the winner of the presidential poll.
The main opposition candidate Venancio Mondlane, who was forced into exile abroad after the assassination of two of his aides in the capital Maputo, has been leading protests that led to the deaths of tens of people. Mondlane returned to Maputo on Thursday.
Thousands of people have also been arrested during the protests that have disrupted the movement of imports and exports to and from landlocked Southern African countries that rely on Mozambican ports for trade.
There are fears that the protests, which had subsided in recent days, could flare up again ahead of Mr Chapo’s inauguration on January 15. Mr Mondlane’s return could stoke violence.
The SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security held a virtual summit on Sunday to discuss the post-election political and security situation in Mozambique, in which the disruption of trade took centre stage, a communique released by the regional body has shown.
“The summit noted with concern the deteriorating post-election political and security situation in the Republic of Mozambique, including the socioeconomic impact in the country and the adverse effects on the supply chains of essential commodities,” the communique says.
“The summit directed the inter-state Defence and Security Committee to propose measures to protect the regional trade routes, humanitarian corridors, and energy supplies, while finding solutions to the political and security challenges in the Republic of Mozambique.”
Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who is the chairperson of the Organ, told the summit that the regional body “could not afford to ignore what is happening in the Republic of Mozambique, especially when it directly impacts the socioeconomic fabric of the entire SADC region.”
It was agreed at the summit that the SADC Panel of Elders engage the Mozambican government and opposition on the post-election environment and report to President Hassan by January 15.
The summit featured Samia and Zambia President Hakainde Hichilema, while Malawi’s Lazarus Chakwera was represented by Foreign Affairs minister Nancy Tembo.
Freight disruption
This week, the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) said the conflict in Mozambique had adversely affected its freight business.
“Mozambique is our major export and import route via the Beira Port and Maputo Port,” said NRZ spokesperson Andrew Kanambura. “We move chrome, lithium, coal, sugar, and granite from Zimbabwe to both Maputo and Beira.”
“From Maputo, we are importing grains, fuels and fertilisers and to a limited extent coal from Maputo to Zambia. The conflict has resulted in occasional stalemate in traffic flow as authorities in Maputo regularly cancel train operations when the problems intensify.”
Last month, business leaders in Mozambique met with outgoing President Filipe Nyusi and asked for escorts to protect trade routes, including the Beira corridor to Zimbabwe.
South Africa has also been forced to temporarily close its main border crossing with Mozambique, the Lebombo port, whenever protests escalate.
The Road Freight Association last month said the disruptions at the ports cost South Africa nearly $500,000 a day.
South Africa, Eswatini, Zambia and Malawi recently sounded the alarm as the unrest took a toll on their economies. Zimbabwean companies have also complained of logistical problems in transporting exports to Mozambique’s ports.
Zambia, which is already facing significant electricity shortages due to a severe drought, said it lost 300MW of imports from Mozambique “indefinitely” due to disruptions caused by the protests.
The country stopped generating electricity from its main hydropower station after water levels at Kariba Dam dropped drastically due to the drought. Africa’s second-largest copper producer had turned to Mozambique to cushion its electricity supply gap.
Eswatini said its sugar industry, a mainstay of the mountain kingdom’s economy, was struggling to export raw sugar to the United States and European Union markets. The country’s sugar exporters depend on a terminal at the port of Maputo, which is jointly owned by Eswatini, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
In Malawi, the disruption in the movement of cargo from Mozambique has hampered the transportation of fuel from the ports of Beira and Nacala.
The disturbances have also hit Mozambique’s domestic economy hard, with Standard Bank noting that the country suffered the “worst contraction” since August 2020.
Locals queue at a grocery store as disruptions linked to post-election unrest continue to affect trade.
Photo credit: Reuters
In its latest survey known as the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), Standard Bank said businesses experienced deterioration in the operating environment and demand for their products due to the unrest.
“The Mozambican private sector companies reported a further deterioration in their conditions in the final month of 2024, with output and order books again negatively affected by protests and strikes,” the bank said. “Customer demand fell at the highest rate in four and half years, causing further reductions in purchases, stocks and headcount.”
It said the PMI indicator in December fell “well into contraction territory” for the second month in a row, from 48.4 in November to 46.4.
The surveyed companies “widely indicated that the decline in operating conditions was due to protests and strikes that followed the general election.”
“The indicator signalled a solid deterioration in the health of the private sector,” Standard Bank said. “The instability had a considerable impact on the total volume of new orders, which fell in all monitored sectors, registering the biggest drop since June 2020.”
Mozambique has a long history of political unrest and for the past seven years the country has been battling an Islamic insurgency in its northern province of Cabo Delgado, which has disturbed potentially big energy projects by foreign companies.
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