Tag: strike

Lourenço’s “Flying Palace” and a Coconut Head

Following his 11-day European tour, Angolan president, João Lourenço, arrived home with a staggering flight bill. He spent several million dollars on a US $74,000 an hour luxurious “flying palace” that transported him the whole time, while preaching anti-corruption at home. The distinguished Ghanaian economist and activist, George Ayittey, has a name for this kind of a leader: a coconut head. For Ayittey, a coconut head is a leader, who, rather than run his country ruins it through folly and depraved indifference to the suffering of ordinary people. Many Angolans saw the social media images of the world’s only private US $350 million Boeing Dreamliner 787 VVIP ostentatiousness. Owned by the Chinese  HNA Group, this plane is the world’s largest luxury business charter. Few wanted to match it with the plane that took President Lourenço to state visits in France and Belgium, as well as a private visit to Spain. […]

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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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Strike at Angolan National Radio

Angolan National Radio staffers are set to go on strike on Friday, August 24, after the expiration of a deadline for negotiations between the management and the workers. On May 24 this year, the local branch of the Angolan Journalists’ Union met with RNA employees, who collectively demanded a salary increase of around 300 percent, amongst other claims. The coordinator of the union committee, Luísa Rangel, highlighted the desperate situation of many RNA professionals. She recalled how her colleague, the reporter Luís Tara, had committed suicide a year ago. “He went and stabbed himself in front of the chairman of the board’s office, to draw attention to his unbearable situation as a result of the humiliating treatment by the management.” He was treated in hospital for the stab wounds, but then hung himself a few days later. Ms. Rangel noted how Mr. Tara “with more than 20 years of experience […]

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