VPMphoko in Angola

VICE-PRESIDENT Phelekezela Mphoko left Harare yesterday for Luanda to attend the inauguration of Angolan President elect Joao Lourenco this Tuesday.

Before departure the Vice-President visited the Msika family home to pay his condolences following the death of Gogo Maria Msika, widow to the late Vice-President Joseph Msika.

The 63-year-old Lourenco of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) resoundingly won the 23 August general elections to extend the revolutionary party’s 42-year rule. He becomes the third Angolan President since the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975. The former Defence Minister takes over from President José Eduardo Dos Santos, who has been at the helm for 38 years.

The 74-year-old Dos Santos is however, expected to remain head of the MPLA party. Mr Bornito de Sousa will at the same ceremony be inaugurated as the Vice-President. MPLA won the poll with 61,07 percent of the vote to control the 220-member National Assembly (Angolan Parliament).

The revolutionary party won 150 seats while Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) came second with 26,7 percent of the votes and 51 Members of Parliament. Casa-Ce was third with 9,4 percent and 16 MPs while the other small political parties shared the remaining seats. The 150 seats give MPLA twothirds majority in Parliament. The latest election was Angola’s fourth since independence and third since the end of a civil war in 2002. The MPLA and UNITA fought on opposing sides in a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002.