The President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, said on Monday (4) in Maputo that there is democracy and freedom of expression in Africa, "because governments allow it", but rights defenders reject the statement because it contrasts with police repression of peaceful marches by civil society.

"In the past, people didn't speak as they do now, the atmosphere was different. The word democracy didn't exist, or if it did it was internal democracy, where people spoke within a context; today people can speak as they wish, freely," said Nyusi, quoted by VOA, at a meeting with his Zambian counterpart, Hakainde Hichilema.

"Sometimes we don't believe that freedom of expression and democracy are exercised better in our own countries than those we use as a standard," said Nyusi, commenting on the growing wave of demonstrations in southern African countries.

For Nyusi, "it's no longer fashionable to make politics out of fighting or war, people should talk and implement dialog".

These statements come days after the Mozambican police prevented marches in honor of the rapper Azagaia, and responded with repression and violence, which for social activist Erik Charas is contradictory.

"A president who says that freedom of expression and democracy exist is because he has no idea what is going on in the country," said Charas, who criticized the police for engaging in repression "instead of protecting citizens' right to speak, to demonstrate and to demand better governance."

Charas recalled that "all the indices of governance show that our democracy, freedom of expression, has been diminishing year after year; we live in a militarized country and maybe we're already in a dictatorship".

Analyst Wilker Dias added that this repression undermines the full exercise of democracy and freedom of expression.