“Corruption and catastrophe came out of the MPLA”, defended that social activist, while CASA-CE deputy Manuel Fernandes says that President João Lourenço cannot appoint the other MPLA members to have committed acts of corruption because he himself he held important positions during the consulate of José Eduardo dos Santos and “knew what was going on”.
For his part, in the opinion of the academic João Lukombo Nzatuzola, corruption is not a new phenomenon in Angola, having already been recognized by the former President of Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos.
Lukombo says that what is lacking is the courage of the ruling party to “cut the evil at the root”.
Lourenço reiterates the fight against corruption
During a meeting of the MPLA summit, President João Lourenço said that the country now had “a better appreciation of the seriousness” of corruption and that his party “does not have to be ashamed” in the fight against this phenomenon.
However, he acknowledged that, 18 years after the end of the armed conflict in Angola, “another constraint as damaging to the country as the war, which took the state coffers by storm” and a relevant part of the economy: corruption, developed.
“The merit of the MPLA consists in the fact that, as a governing party, it guided the Executive to start this crusade to fight corruption, even though it knew about the presumed involvement of militants and its leaders in the most different levels of the party hierarchy”, admitted Lourenço, applauding the courage of the “dissenting voices of civil society”, who have condemned this problem for several years.
Angolan activists and politicians say that corrupt MPs cannot be dissociated.
