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Joseph Madzimure
Zimpapers Politics Hub
In May this year, the ruling Mozambican political party, Frelimo, announced that it had chosen Cde Daniel Chapo as its Presidential candidate in the October elections.
A relatively unknown figure in national politics, Cde Chapo is the current governor of the southern Mozambican province of Inhambane. He won the right to represent Frelimo after getting 225 votes (around 94 percent) cast by the party’s central committee.
But who is this man, who, if he wins the presidential contest will become the first politician born after the country’s independence to run the country?
Cde Chapo was born on January 6, 1977, in Inhaminga, district of Cheringoma, in the province of Sofala.
Son of the late Francisco Chapo and Helena dos Santos Chiremba, Daniel is the sixth child in a family of 10 and professes the Christian religion.
Coming from a humble background, Cde Chapo’s father was an employee of the Mozambican Railways and his mother was a housewife.
Due to the armed conflict, Cde Chapo’s family was forced to leave Inhaminga to Dondo district, where Daniel had his childhood and completed primary education at Escola Primária Josina Machel.
In 1996, he completed Grade 10 at Escola Secundária de Dondo, then he went to Beira City, where he completed secondary school at Escola Secundária Samora Machel.
While attending the second cycle of secondary school in the same city, Cde Chapo was an announcer on Rádio Miramar and presented a sports programme between 1997 and 1999.
In 1999, Cde Chapo moved to Maputo to continue his studies, where he enrolled at Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) — the largest and oldest higher education institution in the country.
In Maputo, he was integrated into Televisão Miramar as a result of his collaboration with Rádio Miramar in Beira.
At the headquarters of that television station, Cde Chapo was a feature reporter and presented a television programme called, “A Voz do Povo”.
In 2004, he completed his law degree, but continued to invest in his studies, having completed the registrar and notary course at Legal and Judiciary Training Centre in Maputo Province the same year.
In 2005 he was appointed conservator and notary in the City of Nacala-Porto, in the province of Nampula, thus beginning his professional career in this area until 2009.
At the invitation of the Pedagogical University Delegation of Nampula, extension of Nacala-Porto, in 2009 Cde Chapo was professor at that higher education institution, having taught the subjects of Constitutional Law and Political Sciences.
In 2009, as a result of his work and political engagement, he was appointed administrator of the Nacala-a-Velha district, where he promoted the creation of employment opportunities for young people without discrimination, as well as organising the installation of large-scale investments.
Even with his schedule under pressure due to his position as district administrator, he decided to continue with his studies, to master’s level in the development management course at the Catholic University of Mozambique in Nampula, in 2014.
In the same year he interned at the Mozambique Lawyer Association, where he is member number 544, but due to incompatibility of duties, he suspended his activities as a lawyer.
In 2015, Cde Chapo was appointed administrator of Palma district in Cabo Delgado province. His mission in Palma lasted a short time as he was appointed in 2016, by the current Mozambique President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, to the position of gGovernor of Inhambane.
In April 2019, the Mozambican parliament approved a new legislative package, which determined that provincial governors would be elected.
In this context, Cde Chapo was Frelimo’s list leader in Inhambane and the party won the October 2019 elections, becoming the first governor elected in that province.
Cde Chapo is married to Gueta Selemane Chapo, with whom he has three children.
He is a basketball and football player.
He speaks fluent Xi-Cena, Xi-nDau, Matsua, Portuguese and English.
If he wins the elections scheduled for October 9, he will become the fifth president of independent Mozambique, after Samora Machel, Joaquim Chissano, Armando Guebuza, and Filipe Nyusi.
Highlights of his achievements
President Nyusi, recently testified to Cde Chapo’s competence, stating that despite having remained in charge of the Palma district for six months, he gained sympathy in that part of the country, to the point that the president was questioned, if they didn’t deserve to have someone with their profile governing them.
During the last eight years (2016 to 2024) as governor of Inhambane, he led the province to be the first in the country to complete the implementation of banks in all districts, within the framework of the presidential initiative, “One District, One Bank”.
This work was completed in May 2019. It was in his consulate and under his leadership that the province of Inhambane organised two international investment conferences, as well as district development forums in all districts, a fact that catapulted the local economy by attracting national and foreign investment in several structuring projects that ensured employment for local labour.
With his leadership, the population of Inhambane Province stopped asking for food at popular rallies and started asking for development infrastructure such as access roads, schools, water supply sources, cellular networks, hospitals as well as agricultural inputs.
In this line of development, Cde Chapo fought hard to ensure that Inhambane ceased to be the poorest province in the country, coming alongside the province of Gaza as one of the largest breeders of cattle, and the capital of national and international events , such as the African Beach Football championship, the holding of the second “Crescendo Azul” conference and recently the holding of the third edition of the National Meeting of the Association of Bikers of Pérola do Indico, having brought together bikers from all provinces, the SADC region and Portugal.
Political background
Between the years 1995-1996, Cde Chapo was secretary for the OJM Organisation Area in the Dondo district, where with vigour and militancy, he mobilised young people to embrace party work.
From 1998-1999 he was secretary of the installation committee of the Dondo District Youth Council as a member and member of the OJM.
From 2001-2004 he was secretary of cell B at the Eduardo Mondlane University residence in Maputo, where with his colleagues, he worked for the success of the electoral campaign for the general elections that year.
In 2004-2005 he was secretary of Cell A of the National Department of Registries and Notaries in Maputo.
In 2005, in Nacala-Porto he was elected secretary of the registry and notary cell in that district.
In 2008, he was appointed director of the electoral campaign for Frelimo candidate Chale Issufo in the Nacala-Porto Municipality, where Frelimo won the elections, removing the opposition from power.
He was appointed in 2009 to the position of administrator of Nacala-Velha and deputy dead of the district election preparation office.
In 2012, due to his duties, he was appointed deputy head of the district preparation office for the 10th congress in Nacala-a-Velha.
In 2014 , he was deputy head of the district election preparation office in Nacala-a-Velha.
In 2016, he was member of the district committee of the Frelimo Party in Palma, where he would be transferred by appointment to the Province of Inhambane.
In 2017 – he was deputy head of the provincial preparation office for the 11th congress in the province of Inhambane.
In 2017 – during the 11th congress of Frelimo, he was elected member of the Central Committee and renewed in 2022 at the 12th Congress.
In 2018 – he was deputy head of the provincial election preparation office in Inhambane.
Having been elected head of list of the Frelimo party for the first elections of the country’s provincial governors in 2019, thanks to the decentralisation reforms in Mozambique.
The Frelimo Central Committee, meeting in its first extraordinary session at the party’s Central School, in the city of Matola, Maputo Province, from May 3-5 2024, elected Cde Chapo, as Frelimo’s candidate for the seventh presidential elections scheduled for October 9, 2024.
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