President of Mozambique

Filipe Nyusi, President of Mozambique (since Jan 15, 2015; re-elected on Oct 15, 2019)

Filipe Jacinto Nyusi (born 9 February 1959), also spelt Nyussi, is the fourth President of Mozambique, in office since 2015. He previously served as Minister of Defence from 2008 to 2014. Nyusi was the candidate of the ruling party, Frelimo, in the 2014 presidential election.

He was born in Namau in Mueda District, Cabo Delgado Province. Both his parents were veterans of the liberation movement, Frelimo. At the start of the Mozambican War of Independence, he was taken across the Ruvuma River to neighbouring Tanzania, where he was educated at Frelimo Primary School in Tunduru. He pursued his secondary education at the Frelimo school at Mariri in Cabo Delgado and at Samora Machel Secondary School in Beira.

In 1973, he joined Frelimo at the age of fourteen and received political and military training at Nachingwea in Tanzania.

In 1990, he completed his mechanical engineering degree at Brno University of Technology in Czechoslovakia. He also studied a postgraduate degree management at the Victoria University of Manchester in England.

Prior to his appointment to the cabinet by President Armando Guebuza, Nyussi worked for the state-owned Mozambique Ports and Railways authority (CFM). He became executive director of CFM-Norte, the northern division of the company, in 1995, and joined the company’s board of directors in 2007.

From 1993 to 2002, Nyussi served as President of Clube Ferroviário de Nampula, a top-division football club based in Nampula. He is also a lecturer at the Nampula campus of the Universidade Pedagógica, a fellow of the Africa Leadership Initiative,[11] and a member of the National Committee of Fighters of the National Liberation Struggle (Portuguese: Comité Nacional dos Combatentes da Luta de Libertação Nacional). He received further training in management in India, South Africa, Swaziland, and the United States.

Nyusi is a member of the Makonde ethnic community. He is married to Isaura Nyusi and has four children, two of which are called, Florindo and Angelino. Angelino is 15 years of age.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipe_Nyusi

Armando Emílio Guebuza, Former President of Mozambique

Armando Emílio Guebuza, President of Mozambique

Armando Emílio Guebuza (b. January 20, 1943) is a Mozambican politician, the current president of that country from 2005.

Career

Guebuza is a former member of that party’s Politburo and served briefly as part of a 10-member collective head of state after the unexpected death of Samora Machel in 1986.

Guebuza was born in northern Mozambique. He joined Frelimo at the age of 20, shortly after it began Mozambique’s war of independence against Portugal. By the time independence was achieved in 1975, Guebuza had become an important general and leader in Frelimo. He became interior minister in the Machel government and issued an order forcing certain Portuguese residents to leave within 24 hours, known as the “24 20” order because the residents in question were restricted to 20 kilograms of luggage. During the 1980s Guebuza developed an unpopular program known as “Operation Production” in which jobless people from urban areas were moved to rural areas in the northern part of the country. Following Machel’s death in a plane crash in South Africa, he was part of a committee investigating the circumstances of the crash, which came to no certain conclusion. He represented Frelimo at the peace negotiations with the Renamo guerilla that led to the Rome General Peace Accords, signed in Rome 4 October 1992. During the transitional phase towards the first general elections in 1994, he represented the Government of Mozambique in the joint Supervision and Monitoring Commission, the highest implementing body of the General Peace Accords.

Following the abandonment of socialist economic policies by President Joaquim Chissano, which included the privatization of state companies, Guebuza became a successful and wealthy businessman, particularly in the construction, exports and fishing industries.

He was chosen as Frelimo’s presidential candidate in 2002 after a tough struggle within the party. He became Secretary General of the party in the same year.

President

He was the candidate of FRELIMO for the December 2004 presidential elections, which he won with 63.7% of the vote. He became president of Mozambique on February 2, 2005. International observers to the elections criticized the fact that the National Electoral Commission (CNE) did not conduct fair and transparent elections. They listed a whole range of shortcomings by the electoral authorities that benefited the ruling party FRELIMO (see External Links).