About the failed murder of Mr. Joel Amaral, better known as “MC Trufafa”

The Mozambican Bar Association has learned, with great concern and apprehension, of the failed assassination of Mr. Joel Amaral, better known as “MC Trufafa”, in the city of Quelimane, Zambézia Province, which represents not only an attack on the rule of law, but also embodies an incomprehensible political intolerance that has been gaining ground since the electoral process ended, with a clear inequality of weapons. It must be clear that the mobilization of a society must be done in the name of the values of freedom, justice and human dignity, in which values are the end and not a mere instrument. The Roman maxim: “honeste vivere, alterum non laedere, suum cuique tribuere”, which means to live honestly, not to harm others and to give each person what they are entitled to, continues to characterise Justice, and in our case, we are far from achieving that maxim, as we are not capable of defending citizens and different ideas, but also of respecting those who disagree with us, and, because it is incompatible with democracy, there is no room for personal, gratuitous, vengeful, hateful and criminal attacks. Even before ideologies, we are human and we must preserve this condition. It is repugnant to think of murdering another person just because they think differently. If we want to erase these recent events in Mozambican electoral history, we must think of a genuine and true reconciliation, in which amnesty is not a pardon and does not mean the triumph of the victors over the vanquished. Reconciliation is not possible with the use of a corrective pen, but with tolerance and the highest value that unites us, which is being Mozambican. In a democratic life, in addition to being plural, there is room for everyone. To this end, rather than condemning this failed murder, especially since similar examples abound in our society, we must seek to clarify the motivations, the moral and material perpetrators, and to that end, impose exemplary punishment. These clandestine networks that aim to sacrifice constitutionally and legally enshrined freedoms and rights must be thoroughly combated in our society, as they represent new forms of violence, intolerance and oppression, without any culprits and, more worryingly, without any investigations. We must do things differently.