Bonfire for Censored Angolan Newspaper

This weekend’s edition of the weekly newspaper Semanário Angolense ended up in a bonfire. Last Saturday morning, Media Investe, the company that owns the Angolan weekly Semanário Angolense, decided to censor the edition, of October 27, because it included an almost full version of the speech of the National Union’s for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) leader, Isaías Samakuva, on the State of the Nation. Journalists from Semanário Angolense told Maka Angola that Media Investe, a company controlled by high-ranking officers of the State Security and Intelligence Services (SINSE), ordered the burning of the copies of the newspaper that had already been printed. Maka Angola obtained a digital copy of the censored newspaper edition, which includes the speech of Samakuva on pages 8, 9 and 10. The October 23 speech of the leader of the main opposition party, was in response to president Dos Santos’ refusal to address the […]

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Oil Workers in Prison for Striking

The 15 Angolan oil workers who went on strike aboard the oil vessel FPSO Gimboa, on October 3, to demand better working conditions, were questioned yesterday and today by the public prosecution in the oil-rich coastal town of Soyo, in the north of Angola. The workers are under arrest and are yet to be charged. The vessel, a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit, has been producing and storing crude from Bloc 4/05. This block is a joint-venture between Sonangol Pesquisa & Produção (50 percent), the Norwegian multinational Statoil (20 percent), and private Angolan companies belonging to government officials and Sonangol executives, Somoil (15 percent) and ACREP (15 percent). A special operation comprising members of the Rapid Intervention Police, Anti-Riot Unit, state security and the investigation police landed, last Sunday, on the oil vessel to put down the strike, and arrested the workers. The strikers’ union representative, Joaquim Domingos, […]

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