Month: September 2015

Oil and Cement Don’t Mix With Corruption in Angola

Angolan business practices are under the microscope again after a US$800 million  government-backed cement factory suspended production, and its recently dismissed CEO announced a sell-off of shares whose ownership is in question. An investigation by Maka Angola suggests the confusion surrounding the state of affairs at the Kwanza Sul Cement Factory (Fábrica de Cimento Kwanza Sul) can be traced directly to Angola’s ‘unique’ business practices under the current MPLA government, led for the past 36 years by President José Eduardo dos Santos. The Angolan colonel who founded the company has been sacked, the operating costs have become uneconomic and the Danish company LNS in charge of running the plant says it’s owed US$20 million in unpaid fees.  Legal experts have told Maka Angola that the uncertain future of the Kwanza Sul Cement Factory (FCKS) is directly related to its tangled history. Ownership and finances as clear as mud The origins […]

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Attempts at Peaceful Protests are Now “Undemocratic” in Angola

The families of Angolan political prisoners are appealing against the decision of the Luanda Provincial Governor, Graciano Domingos, banning the protest and vigil set for the 26 of September.   Graciano Domingos argued that the gathering would be undemocratic. This is yet another episode in the famous case of the young activists who were arrested last June on politically motivated charges that they were plotting a coup against President Dos Santos. The youth had assembled at a book club reading, and were discussing materials on non-violent strategies against repression when they were detained. “We would like to make it known that the case is still going through the appropriate  legal procedures; therefore, we need to wait patiently for the final decision on the basis of the law, and for the defence of the accused on the basis of their constitutional rights,” the governor said. The law permits 90 days of preventive […]

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Crisis in Angola Could Free Social Conscience and Lead to Change

A few days ago a lawyer was complaining over dinner about the lack of official information on the economic crisis in Angola. She felt the government, or rather the president, ought to keep society informed about how the crisis is to be managed and dealt with. The conversation reminded us how Angolans need to reflect on current realities and become more aware of the disarray in which our society finds itself at the moment. For the first time in the history of independent Angola, all the political parties are ideologically feeble and incapable of imposing their vision of Angola onto society. But this means that also for the first time, Angolans have the opportunity to exercise citizenship rather than party-political activism. The middle level For the first time in many years, the economic crisis is starting to affect an important sector of the population. This is the middle level – […]

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Solidarity Meeting With Political Prisoners Gathers a Thousand People

More than a thousand people took part in a meeting to express their solidarity with detained Angolan political prisoners.  Human rights defender Rafael Marques, and Radio Despertar organized the event on 12 September. The event was broadcast live by the radio station and live streamed through various social networks for nearly four hours. Deolinda Luisa, mother of the 26-years old political prisoner Benedito Jeremias,  in tears and with a cracking voice, said she had not been able to take food to her son for three days because she had no money.  The mother, currently living in Moxico province, is in Luanda to support her son who has been detained since 20 June.  He has been accused of plotting to overthrow the state as part of the so-called 15+1 prisoners. The mother of 19-year old political prisoner Nito Alves, Adalia Chivonde, told the gathering that her son was showing signs of […]

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Mavungo Convicted to Six Years in Jail for a Protest Never Held

Yesterday, September 14, a judge of the provincial court of Cabinda sentenced José Marcos Mavungo, a 57 year-old human rights activist, to six years of imprisonment on the charge of rebellion. His legal counsels will appeal to the Supreme Court. Mavungo has already spent six months in jail, and will serve 5.5 more years in jail. The peaceful protest he attempted to organize on March 14 never took place, as it had been prohibited by the authorities. Nevertheless, police and security forces arrested him as he stepped out of a Catholic religious service early in the morning on the same day of the planned protest. The authorities charged him with the crime of rebellion. Mavungo’s sentencing was a mockery of justice. It did not meet basic due process guarantees and formal trial standards required by Angolan law.  The judge Jeremias Sofrera ignored the blatant lack of evidence exposed during the […]

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There is No Place Like Home Unless You Are Banned

For the second time in my legal and political brushes with the Angolan government, I learnt  of a banning order preventing me from entering Luanda, my city. I arrived in Luanda at 12.15 yesterday, having flown from South Africa.  While checking my passport, an immigration officer asked me: “What kind of problems do you have with the Angolan government?” He then told me of the order banning my entrance and held on to my passport. Another officer ordered me to join a group of foreigners in a waiting room who were possibly about to be repatriated for immigration irregularities. Apparently I was assumed a foreigner; one of the officers began to address me in English. After a while, another officer, playing the well-mannered cop, came to talk to me and informed me that his colleague had been overzealous. He added that there was an order banning me from leaving the […]

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Meeting in Solidarity with 15 Political Prisoners in Angola

Radio Despertar and human rights defender Rafael Marques are organising a meeting in Luanda in solidarity with political prisoners and victims of political intolerance, on 12 September 2015. Supporters across Angola and throughout the world will be able to follow the event on social media. The meeting will take place from 10 am until 1 pm, at the at the Sovsmo conference centre next to Radio Despertar’s premises in Viana. The meeting welcomes people from all sectors of civil society, activists, religious groupings, political parties, artists and all citizens committed to freedom, human rights, justice and the spiritual well being of the Angolan people. The meeting aims to build public solidarity with the 15 political prisoners who have been arbitrarily accused of preparing a coup against President José Eduardo dos Santos. This solidarity will also extend to the activist José Mavungo in Cabinda, who is on trial accused of attempting […]

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Angolan Police Illegally Spread Their Wings in Portugal

As evidence of the confusion abounding within political and judicial authorities with regard to the case of the 15 political prisoners, senior officials from the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) and the Attorney General’s office in Luanda travelled to Lisbon. There, on 6 and 7 August, they interrogated Alberto Neto, owner of the property where the youths were arrested, and made bizarre accusations about the activists’ alleged plans. Alberto Neto, an opposition politician and academic, was interrogated by the deputy Attorney General of the Republic attached to SIC, Luciano Chaca, and the SIC special agent Pedro João, who coordinated the raid on Neto’s home that resulted in the arrest of 13 of the youths. In an exclusive interview with Maka Angola, Alberto Neto described what happened. “I was in Sweden as a visiting professor in the University of Malmo. I was told that over 50 police officers had surrounded and entered […]

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The Angolan Police Illegally Spreads its Wings in Portugal

As evidence of the confusion abounding within political and judicial authorities with regard to the case of the 15 political prisoners, senior officials from the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) and the Attorney General’s office in Luanda travelled to Lisbon. There, on 6 and 7 August, they interrogated Alberto Neto, owner of the property where the youths were arrested, and made bizarre accusations about the activists’ alleged plans. Alberto Neto, a politician and academic, was interrogated by the deputy attorney general of the Republic attached to SIC, Luciano Chaca, and the SIC special agent Pedro João, who coordinated the raid on Neto’s home that resulted in the arrest of 13 of the youths. In an exclusive interview with Maka Angola, Alberto Neto described what happened. “I was in Sweden as a visiting professor in the University of Malmo. I was told that over 50 police officers had surrounded and entered my […]

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Coup Plot Inquiry Turns to Pre-School and the Name of a Prisoner

Fernando Baptista, father of the political prisoner Manuel Baptista Chivonde Nito Alves, was summoned on Friday to testify before the Criminal Investigation Service [SIC] in Luanda. He was questioned about his son’s primary school education and about his given name, which recalls the name of a famous anti-establishment leader from the 1970s. “I was interrogated by special agent Pedro João, in the presence of Superintendent Fernando Recheado. They wanted to know why I called my son Nito Alves,  and where he went to school from pre-school to the end of his primary education”, the father told Maka Angola. According to Fernando Baptista, the interrogation lasted one hour and “was based entirely on his name and his primary education”. “Special agent Pedro João also asked me if we are related to Commander Nito Alves and I said we were not”, said the father. The legendary commander Alves Bernardo Baptista “Nito Alves”, […]

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