Nova Cimangola: Angola’s Independence for Sale
In his State of the Nation Address, President João Lourenço proudly declared that Angolans are celebrating “50 years as a sovereign State, 50 years as a free people, masters of their own destiny.”
Yet for many Angolans, these words ring hollow.
Nova Cimangola — seized by the Angolan State in 2020 after reclaiming the 49% stake formerly held by Isabel dos Santos — should have been a symbol of restored economic sovereignty. Instead, it has become a textbook case of internal neo-colonialism, where Angolan citizens watch their own public enterprise treat them as second-class workers on their own soil.
A New Colonial Caste System
More than 1,000 Angolan employees receive low wages at Nova Cimangola. Meanwhile, just 70 expatriates are paid over US $13 million annually — more than the total payroll of the entire local workforce.
A Portuguese cafeteria manager earns US $8,000 a month — far more than the President of Angola’s official salary. The manager responsible for the gardens earns a similar amount. In a country with chronic unemployment and thousands of business and engineering graduates, the idea that no Angolan could manage a canteen or oversee landscaping is beyond insulting — it is dehumanising.
The explanation offered by management is “international experience”. Angolan employees and industry experts call it what it is: a deliberate system of exclusion.
Expatriate Privilege, National Marginalisation
The CEO and senior directors — from Portugal, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico and the Dominican Republic — earn between US $15,000 and US $26,600 per month. The Portuguese couple at the top, CEO Pedro Mariano Campos and Corporate Image & IT Director Elsa Careto, take home nearly US $50,000 in combined net monthly salaries, plus benefits.
Meanwhile, Angolan managers performing equivalent roles earn six times less.
An Angolan jurist described the payroll as:
“A pornographic insult to national sovereignty.”
Liberation in Words, Dependence in Practice
The MPLA inherited a colonial system and chose not to dismantle it — instead, it replaced the white colonial elite with a domestic one, flanked and legitimised by a new generation of foreign “experts” paid in hard currency.
Public companies have become political fiefdoms, insulated from accountability, where privilege is traded, not earned. For ordinary Angolans, independence was a slogan that never translated into material dignity.
In the same speech in which he celebrated “50 years of liberation”, President Lourenço boasted of Angola’s 106 universities and 330,000 university students. Yet State-owned enterprises continue to import foreign staff for roles Angolans are perfectly qualified to perform.
If the best-paid jobs remain reserved for foreigners, what exactly was the point of independence?
The Escape Route of the Elite
While ordinary citizens struggle to make ends meet, the children of Angola’s powerful have built comfortable lives in Portugal — the former colonial power. They live off fortunes accumulated in Angola, spend lavishly, and are treated with respect only as wealthy consumers.
But when it comes to integration into Portuguese society, they face growing anti-immigrant sentiment — an irony too sharp to ignore:
the same elite that claims to have “liberated” Angola now seeks refuge in the colonial metropole it once denounced.
A Betrayed Independence
Nova Cimangola is a microcosm of a deeper national betrayal.
Half a century after 1975, Angola is not colonised by Europe — it is colonised from within. A small political and economic elite has captured the State and outsourced national dignity to foreign labour.
Independence has become an anthem, a flag — and a myth.
True liberation will begin only when State-owned enterprises prioritise merit, pay Angolans with fairness, and invest in national talent rather than expensive foreign surrogates. Until then, Angola’s independence will continue to be celebrated in speeches, not lived by its people.