Mozambique Leader a Statesman, but He Failed to Halt Economic Slide

Samora M. Machel, president of Mozambique, was a man of fiery intensity, quick wit and immense charisma, a heroic figure in revolutionary Africa.

But those qualities were not enough to stop Mozambique’s economic slide, which began when the Portuguese colonialists--most of the professional middle-class--fled after the country became independent from Portugal in 1975.

“For all the problems they have had here, Machel was one of the saving graces of the place,” a Western diplomat who knew him said Monday. “He was someone the people could look up to--a statesman, a hero.”

The ruling Frelimo party’s Central Committee, which will choose a successor, helped Machel formulate his policies, and one analyst of Mozambican affairs remarked: “What he believed in and what he was trying to do--I see that being carried on.”

Friendliness to West

Still, Machel’s recent show of friendliness to Western democracies, which included visits to the United States and Britain, may not be carried on by his successor, some diplomatic sources said.

Machel, 53, a preacher’s son and a former hospital nurse, was one of the founding members of the guerrilla movement that was formed to fight Portuguese rule in 1962.

In 1975, the group, known as Frelimo, a Portuguese acronym for the Mozambique Liberation Front, became the first political party in independent Mozambique, and Machel, by then its leader, became the first president.

He was a respected figure in southern Africa. As tension with South Africa and its neighbors increased, he traveled often to other so-called front-line states for meetings of the sort he was returning from, in Zambia, when he died.

‘A People’s Touch’

“He had a people’s touch, and he could hold an audience,” said Paul Fauvet of the Mozambican News Agency, who saw Machel galvanize people in four languages--Portuguese, Swahili and two Mozambican dialects. “His death is a loss not simply for Mozambique but for southern Africa and for the socialist community.”

Although Mozambique suffered from massive problems, including war, famine and widespread poverty, Machel’s energy never seemed to flag.

A group of American journalists traveling in Africa in August with U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson arrived at the presidential palace in Maputo one evening and found themselves face to face, in a cavernous room, with a small, bearded man in a well-pressed army uniform.

Journalists Stunned

His eyes were wide and he smiled broadly, holding his hands folded behind his back and rocking on the heels of his black boots. The journalists were too stunned to speak, and he peppered them with questions, rarely bothering to wait for the answers to be translated.

“Welcome to Mozambique!” he said, in rapid Portuguese. “How do you find our country?”

“Is this the president?” one journalist whispered.

The gregarious public relations man was, indeed, President Machel.

At the time of his death, Machel was facing one of his worst crises. South Africa had decided to deport the 69,000 Mozambicans working there--who earn much of the country’s foreign exchange--apparently in retaliation for the Machel government’s advocacy of international sanctions against South Africa.

Guerrillas Make Headway

In addition, the Mozambique National Resistance, an anti-Marxist guerrilla group allegedly backed by South Africa, had made some headway against government troops in northern parts of Mozambique and recently captured five important towns.

Meanwhile, the government estimated that nearly 4 million people, a quarter of the country’s population, were in danger of starving.

When a South African official said last week that Mozambique was on the brink of collapse, Machel put the army on full alert and warned of the likelihood of an attack by South Africa.

Facing increased tension in his country, Machel took the unusual step of inviting foreign journalists into Maputo for a news conference. It had been scheduled for today. Most of the journalists were forced to wait in Manzini in neighboring Swaziland when Machel’s government refused to let them proceed to the Mozambican capital.

Mozambique’s recent attempts to cut trade ties with South Africa have caused havoc in the markets. Fixed prices for produce were eased, bringing more goods to the stores--but at a price. A kilogram of tomatoes (2.2 pounds) at one market this week cost the equivalent of $50.

Although Machel was considered a popular leader, some Mozambicans think his death might signal a more prosperous era for the country.

“Let’s hope it gets better,” a diplomat quoted several Mozambicans as telling him Monday. “Machel has not given the people much.”

Machel, a Marxist, steadily strengthened his ties with the West over the last two years. He met with President Reagan last year, and U.S. aid to Mozambique has increased slowly to the current level of about $10 million a year.

Analysts in Maputo say Machel’s successor may not try to maintain friendships with capitalists and socialists alike.

The two men most often mentioned to succeed Machel are Maj. Gen. Joaquim Chissano, the foreign minister, and Marcelino dos Santos, recently named president of the Popular Assembly.

Chissano, regarded as friendly to the West, has traveled widely in West Europe and was at U.N. headquarters in New York last week. He supported Machel’s trips to the United States and Britain.

Dos Santos, on the other hand, was said to be unhappy with Machel’s overtures to the West. He has tended to travel to the Soviet Union and other East Bloc countries on his journeys out of Mozambique.

“It can go East, it can go West,” a West European diplomat in Maputo said. “Hopefully, it’s not going to keep going downhill.”

Machel was born in Kilembene and worked as a nurse for a while at a hospital before joining Frelimo and becoming a battlefield leader. It was in the hospital that he first grew angry at the way blacks were treated by the white Portuguese doctors.

When he became president, he nationalized most of the country, and the whites fled. Western aid suppliers were frightened off by Machel’s avowed Marxism, and he turned to the East Bloc, which offered only military assistance.