Category: Articles

The Road to Dialogue in Angola or Things Fall Apart in Angola

Last Friday, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution paving the way for Angola to be promoted from a low to middle income country by 2020. This resolution is cause for celebration by the government, for it is an international endorsement of its stewardship of the country. From 2003 to 2013, the country’s oil revenues reached over US $450 billion, according to Angolan economic estimates, and for a decade it ranked among the ten fastest growing economies in the world. Meanwhile, the timing of the UN resolution seems to be a twist of irony for ordinary Angolan citizens. It comes at a time when the bust of the oil fueled economic boom is all too evident on the supermarket shelves, and poverty is on the rise. Food shortages are becoming severe in parts of the country, while in the capital retailers are imposing rationing of certain products. […]

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Methodist Corruption: God Helps Those Who Help Themselves

The Methodist University of Angola (MUA) is in disarray amid allegations of corruption at the highest levels leading to calls from the United Methodist Church for a thorough audit and a full investigation. There are also demands that certain members of the Board of Directors to be replaced and that the Church take responsibility for bank debts of US $21 million. The private sector university, designed to serve an estimated 9,000 students, is at the centre of a dispute between the Church and its main commercial partner, the Portuguese company LisTorres, which controls 57% of MUA stock through two Angolan subsidiaries, Turpolis and Imolis. According to the published accounts prepared by the MUA’s Board of Directors, the institution has turned a profit of US $16 million over its eight-year existence, with a total income of  US $112 million and costs of US $95.3 million. Now, however, LisTorres is said to be demanding US$25 million to give up its interest […]

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Stoney Angolan Hearts

Manuel Baptista Chivonde Nito Alves, 19, has just started serving a six month sentence for contempt of court at Viana prison outside the Angolan capital, Luanda. Nito Alves, as he is commonly known, was under house arrest, having earlier spent fifty one days in prison after being charged, along with fifteen other activists, of plotting acts against the Angolan government.  It was during the trial for this original charge that Nito Alves cried out, saying, “I do not fear for my life; this trial is a farce.” The young activist felt the court was trying to humiliate his father, who was being interrogated at the time. The authorities took him away, tried him summarily, and slapped a six month sentence on him. Sadly, some have come to accept this lack of compassion on the part of the Angolan authorities as being normal. Nito Alves and I have much in common: we were both born […]

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Six Months in Prison for Calling the Trial a Farce

The Angolan judge presiding over the ‘Luanda Book Club’ trial of 17 Angolan activists accused of preparing a rebellion, has pronounced one of the activists guilty of contempt of court and sentenced him to six months in prison and a fine of 50,000 Kwanzas. Defendant Manuel Chivonde Baptista Nito Alves, 19,  had “interjected disrespectfully”, said Judge Januário Domingos, accusing him of “offending and disrespecting the court.” Nito Alves was allegedly heard to make a comment when his own father, Fernando Baptista, was being asked whether he had been heard in the preparatory phase of the trial,  to which he said “no”. Counsel for the public prosecutor’s office referred Fernando Baptista to records of the proceedings.  That was when Nito Alves “interjected disrespectfully” said the judge,  to “belittle and slander the court.” The defence lawyer asked for moderation and a corrective measure, arguing in mitigation that the accused had been under intense pressure, including six months […]

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No-Shows Force Adjournments at the Show Trial of the Luanda Book Club 

Late last year, after a torrid few weeks under the gaze of the world’s media, the trial of dissidents charged with rebellion against Angola’s MPLA government was abruptly adjourned in time for Christmas.  This was seen as less a gesture of seasonal goodwill, more an attempt to shake off some increasingly uncomfortable scrutiny by the outside world. The initial 15 defendants, known as the “Luanda Book Club”, are a group of youthful dissidents and activists who were arrested for having gathered to read and discuss Gene Sharp’s ‘From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation”.  The book is described as a blueprint for nonviolent resistance to repressive regimes.  For the heinous act of reading about resistance, they were charged with conspiracy to overthrow the state.  Two other human rights activists were later added to the charge sheet, though not held in detention. After months in preventative custody, Rapper Luaty Beirão and his […]

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Dos Santos Kleptocracy is Out of Control: Everything for the Daughter

Has Angola’s President José Eduardo dos Santos lost his bearings?  Recent events suggest he is in the process of arranging a dynastic succession. His first-born daughter, Isabel dos Santos, has accumulated three major public projects: first, the Urban Redevelopment Master Plan for the capital city, Luanda; second, the Restructuring of the National Oil Company Sonangol (the largest state-owned company); and, finall, the Commission for the Restructuring of the Oil Sector. Isabel dos Santos is estimated to have become a billionaire (many would say thanks to her father) and has more than thirty companies to manage.  Why does the president need to hand over these major public undertakings to her? Could it be that she has extraordinary managerial and leadership abilities? Or not? Maka Angola has already outlined Isabel dos Santos’s likely intentions with the Master Plan for Luanda.  As things stand, Isabel will have ultimate control over an astonishing US $15 billion of funds for the […]

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Sindika Dokolo: Chronicle of a Crime Foretold

The never-ending story of Angola’s long-serving President José Eduardo dos Santos (36 years in power and counting) and his billionaire family has resulted in yet another lawsuit being presented to the Office of Attorney General of the Republic for action.  This time, the alleged offender is the president’s Congolese son-in-law, Sindika Dokolo, the multi-millionaire businessman hitherto eclipsed by his billionaire wife, Isabel dos Santos. In short, a provincial governor already accused of illegitimately helping himself to land, then allowed the President’s son-in-law to acquire enough land to found a small city for a peppercorn price of less than US$10,000. Investigative journalist Rafael Marques de Morais, filed today the complaint against the Governor of the province of Kwanza Sul, General Eusébio de Brito Teixeira. The complaint also names as the governor’s partners in crime, the famed art collector Sindika Dokolo and his company, Soklinker (Soklinker Parceiros Comerciais, Lda), as well as its manager Luís […]

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Land-Grabbing as a Path to Riches and Status in Angola

Angolan investigative journalist and human rights defender Rafael Marques de Morais has submitted a complaint to the Office of the Attorney General about the behaviour of notorious Kwanza-Sul Governor, General Eusébio de Brito Teixeira, for illegal land-grabbing. The complaint refers to yet more illegal appropriation of rural land, after having already grabbed more than 300 square kilometers to raise cattle and farming.  The Governor is suspected of three criminal offences:  the unlawful transfer of land from the State to an individual; unlawfully re-designating land for real estate development as rural land;  and  assigning  reduced value to these lands below their real commercial value (thus defrauding the State). Documentary evidence submitted with the complaint shows that on May 22nd, 2014, in his role as Governor of Kwanza Sul province,  the General made it known he had granted land surface rights to Ebrite Filhos Ltd., a company he formed with his children […]

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Nigeria and Angola Take Two Extreme Approaches to Corruption

In response to the growing public demand and to end the proliferation of protests against corruption in Angola, in 2009, President José Eduardo dos Santos announced his new policy of “zero tolerance” of corruption. More than 2200 days have passed since his announcement and not one major corrupt figure has been arrested. From his actions, it is clear that he prefers to arrest and punish those who speak out against uncontrolled corruption rather than those who are actually guilty of corruption. Angola and Nigeria are the two largest producers of oil on the African continent; both countries, by all accounts, are the most corrupt in Africa. Both Angola and Nigeria are suffering because of the dramatic drop in the price of oil. The different ways both countries are trying to overcome their difficulties, and solve the problem of the shortage of money, presents a fascinating contrast. Angola’s strategy is to […]

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General Eusébio counts on Friends in High Places to Protect Him

A recent report by Maka Angola detailing land appropriation by the Governor of Kwanza Sul Province, General Eusébio de Brito Teixeira, revealed how blatantly Angolan officials act in contravention of the most elementary rules of administrative procedure. It turns out that this was not an isolated act. Maka Angola has uncovered a second instance of illegal transfer of rural land by the same Governor – this time to a person who might be expected to offer the General  an “insurance policy” against punitive action. On January 26th, 2015, the Governor issued another land concession document to Soklinker Commercial Partners Ltd., granting surface land rights over 7,632 hectares of rural land for the purposes of construction. Soklinker is 75% owned by Sindika Dokolo, the husband of ‘First Daughter’ Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman. The remaining 25% is nominally held by Soklinker’s manager Luís Carlos Amorim da Luz Tavira, whose sister Catarina Tavira was […]

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