Folha 8 accuses Angola's ruling MPLA of 51 years of corruption and racism
The Luanda weekly says the party's leadership under President João Lourenço has left most Angolans with little while a small elite holds large fortunes abroad.
Folha 8, a Luanda weekly, says Angola has been governed by the same party, the MPLA, for 51 years and that the country remains among the most corrupt in the world. The paper says it has high infant mortality, deep social inequality and poor democratic practice, and it blames the party's leadership under President João Lourenço for all of it.
The paper says the party's elite, led by Lourenço, holds millions of dollars abroad while millions of Angolans have little or nothing. It recalls that General Francisco Furtado, then minister of state and head of the president's military household, warned that anyone who criticised the MPLA would be hit in the face. The paper contrasts Adalberto da Costa Júnior, who it says defends the power of ideas, with Lourenço, whom it accuses of relying on the force of power.
The paper also cites Lourenço's 2017 campaign speech in Bié, in which he blamed UNITA for destroying industrial capacity during the war and said this made it harder to create jobs for young people. Folha 8 says the MPLA's approach fuels hatred, discord and racism, and that reconciliation requires inclusion rather than exclusion.
Why it mattersThe article ties the party's leadership to a claimed flow of public wealth abroad and to limits on criticism, which bears on how readers judge Angolan governance.