Africa-Press – Angola. A week after the chaos that shook the country, and Luanda in particular, a question remains that seems to remain unanswered. What many people are essentially wondering is whether João Lourenço and his regime truly understood what happened.
The official narrative suggests otherwise. Apparently, for João Lourenço and his entourage, nothing happened beyond identified acts of vandalism, which can be resolved with a 50 billion kwanza credit line.
The facts tell us so. João Lourenço convened his Security Council and, in the meeting’s note, urged the population to “refrain from engaging in content posted on social media, much of it produced using artificial intelligence, which incites disobedience, hatred, and rebellion.” That’s unbelievable!
The most important message conveyed to the country after a National Security Council meeting was the information that Angolans should refrain from posting content on social media that incites riots. Days earlier, in a previous statement, João Lourenço condemned the acts of vandalism and praised the police, whom society accuses of murdering at least 30 people.
This was after meeting with his ministers to approve tourism projects, while the country reeked of fresh mourning. Through actions and words, João Lourenço thus conveys the suggestion that his parallel world remains flourishing and serene.
However, fate would have it that this time, a prominent MPLA member of parliament joined the group throwing ice water in his face to try to wake him from his apparent deep slumber. In an unexpected text dated this Monday, the 4th, sociologist Paulo de Carvalho wrote what no prominent MPLA member has dared to say thus far. Bluntly, he warned that the MPLA’s self-destruction, accelerated by João Lourenço, will lead to its inevitable defeat. “Either by the ballot box or by force.”
It is not yet known whether Paulo de Carvalho could be subject to a trial for inciting rebellion. What we do have is reasonable certainty that the recognition of the possibility of the MPLA being forcibly ousted from power is not a casual statement. It is, rather, an admission that the events that have swept through Luanda, especially, represent, as the deputy himself points out, “the breaking point with the past of popular submission.”
The MPLA representative could not have been more explicit and incisive in demanding urgent changes to his party. Or in urging the MPLA to update itself, as is the alleged aspiration of its “true members.”
ANGOLA24
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