By IPS Correspondents
XAI-XAI, Mozambique, Nov 12 2008 (IPS)

Two deaths in a row placed Rita Muianga at the helm of Xai-Xai's municipal council. In 2003, council presidents Ernesto Mausse and Faquir Bay died suddenly and successively. Rumours of witchcraft gripped Xai-Xai, a small town 220 kilometres north of Mozambique's capital, Maputo.

Rita Muainga -- "If we rush, we can create problems. We wish to see Mozambique become modern without tossing aside our diverse roots." Credit: Paola Rolleta/IPS

She started her new job "almost shyly," in the words of Bento Munguambe, a social worker in Xai-Xai, but proved to be a quick study.

In the by-elections, Muianga won 95 percent of the vote, becoming the country's second woman ever to preside over a municipal council.

Today she is running for a second term in the municipal polls scheduled for 19 November.

Xai-Xai, capital of Gaza province, is Frelimo heartland. Just one opposition member sits at the municipal assembly.

"The Limpopo is our blessing and our curse," says Muianga. It makes the land fertile but floods dramatically, destroys roads and erodes the shore, threatening some neighbourhoods with collapse.

The biggest challenge during her first term, she recalls, was repairing the damage done to the town's water supply by floods in 2000, and extending water infrastructure through town. Proudly, she notes that by the end of 2009, with the help of the African Development Bank, all of Xai-Xai will have safe water.

Balancing act

Muianga, 53, is married, with four grown-up children and one granddaughter.

Born in 1955 in Mandjakaze, not far from Xai-Xai, after finishing high school she got a job at a bank in Maputo and joined Frelimo's youth wing. In 1975 Mozambique wrestled independence from Portugal, and Muianga, 20, got married. Two years later, she moved to Tete province with her husband and two babies.

"I was young, but with two kids it didn't make sense to stay in the youth wing," she explains. She joined Frelimo's women's wing (OMM, in Portuguese) and eventually became its provincial chief in Gaza.

Muianga is a cousin of former president Joachim Chissano, and an ideological daughter of Frelimo, the party she credits with delivering independence and modernization to Mozambique. The party that gave women the possibility of a political career.

Mozambique boasts a high number of women in Parliament, over 30 percent, double the average in sub-Saharan Africa. The Prime Minister is a woman and Frelimo reserves 35 percent of its municipal assembly lists for women.

"Mozambican women like to work in politics without neglecting the private sphere. Like me. At the council, I devote myself to government and people. At home, I wear the roles of mother and wife," she explains.

Susana Damasceno, head of the Portuguese charity Aid Global, admires Muianga's balancing act: "She knows how to keep streams separate, how to close the door when needed, and is very conscious of her professional and her family duties."

Combining modernity and tradition is a delicate act in multicultural Mozambique, where African, Christian and Muslim beliefs coexist.

For example, polygamy is common in Gaza. Muianga, the OMM and many women's groups are against it.

"In the north of Gaza, many women support polygamy. I can't ask them to drop the practice from one day to the next," she explains.

Cultural change takes time: "If we rush, we can create problems. We wish to see Mozambique become modern without tossing aside our diverse roots."

Among the council's eight members, three are women. "I like working with women," says Muianga, with a twinkle. Her goal is to have a 50/50 split, as required by the Southern Africa Development Community Protocol on Gender signed in August.

Swinging a broom

IPS found Muianga at the new municipal library, spruced up with three thousand books and several computers thanks to Aid Global.

"Young people need to read because reading changes attitudes. Sadly, TV does not give a lot of good content, we need to offer alternatives," she says.

Afua Bay, a neighbour of Xai-Xai, is a fan. "She has done a lot for the city," she told IPS.

Achievements include paving the road to the provincial hospital, repairing streets, extending clean water and sanitation, improving markets, and providing three tractors for smallholders.

It is not unusual for residents to see their council president, a straw broom in her hand, sweeping a market during clean-up and sanitation campaigns.

"Markets are points of convergence and we battle to improve them. We have done a lot but have not yet reached our goal," she says.

Her election manifesto sets clear targets to improve Xai-Xai during the next mandate.

Witchcraft rumours have long ceased. Instead, hard work and visible results are Muianga's winning cards.

Excerpt: