Tag: Bento Kangamba

How Police Commanders Brutally Assaulted Laurinda Gouveia

One National Police officer grabbed Laurinda Gouveia’s mobile phone, and another punched her in the face. They dragged her a few meters, by the hair, to a National Police vehicle. Laurinda committed the crime of treason by attempting to take part in a demonstration demanding the resignation of president José Eduardo dos Santos. What followed is her personal ordeal. Last Sunday, November 23, at around 4pm, Laurinda, a 2nd year student of Philosophy at the Catholic University, and part-time street vendor of barbecued meat, went to Independence Square in Luanda, in the company of three other activists. While her companions were trying to get to the Agostinho Neto monument, Laurinda was taking pictures from a distance. “The National Police patrol car took me to the 1st of May School [Commercial Institute of Luanda], beside the Square. Six police commanders and plain clothes SINSE  (State Security and Intelligence Service) officials surrounded […]

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Kangamba: the MPLA Convicted Candidate

The kick-start of the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), and president José Eduardo dos Santos campaign trail, on June 23, in the 11 de Novembro stadium, elicited the shadow and the real power of another dos Santos. Few people noticed it. On the stage erected outside the stadium, where several famous Angolan singers performed, and where the president was scheduled to address the crowds, another name was displayed on two huge posters on both sides of the stage: that of the controversial 47 year old political showman Bento Kangamba, whose real name is Bento dos Santos. The event was yet another masterful coup in the personal campaign of the self-proclaimed “businessman for youth” and president of Kabuscorp F.C. Bento Kangamba who is running for member of Parliament in the up-coming elections scheduled for August 31. The said candidate is the secretary of the MPLA’s provincial committee […]

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Military Police Arrests 51 War Veterans

Angolan military police have quietly detained 51 war veterans, following demonstrations on June 21. The detainees are in the Military Judicial Police (PJM) garrison in Luanda. Gonçalves Alberto, 46, told Maka Angola that the police had arrested the men at the Signals Regiment Headquarters, where they had gathered after being promised a solution to the problem of their unpaid pensions. “My brother João Alberto, 44, was with me at the Signals. As there were many of us, I didn’t notice he was missing. I only learnt from a text message that he was already detained in a police car with the others,” Gonçalves Alberto said. “If we had been aware that our brothers were being captured in this treacherous manner we would have protested and we would all have ended up in prison.” The following day, June 21, Gonçalves Alberto visited his brother and his friends Francisco Manuela and Freitas […]

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