The
MPLA Political Bureau has welcomed the government’s programme to speed up the
diversification of the national economy, beyond its current domination by the
petroleum industry. The Politburo’s statement on 31 March made a special
recommendation: that the government should train the personnel necessary to put
the plan into practice. However, there is a contradiction here that needs to be
analysed.
By Rafael Marques de Morais
Let’s
start with the idea of “speeding up”. As long ago as 12 February 2009,
President José Eduardo dos Santos said “it is necessary to speed up economic
diversification by making and promoting investments in other areas of
production”. Four years later, the idea of speeding up economic diversification
was incorporated into the National Development Plan for 2013-2017, of which
implementation began last year. If it is indeed a process of acceleration, it
has been a very slow one.
As
its priorities for economic diversification, the plan aims to promote
competitiveness and co-ordination between public and private investment. From
the government’s point of view, the programme’s viability depends on building a
strong Angolan private investment sector. This is why its project included “the
promotion of entrepreneurship and development of the national private sector”.
The
fundamental contradiction lies, first of all, in the fact that power is
becoming ever more centralised and concentrated. This centralisation, as I have
argued in my thesis on “The Transparency of Looting in Angola”, is transferred
from the state to the private realm of the president and his inner circle. A
consequence of this is the conflation of state interests with rulers’ private
interests, to the point where they have become mutually indistinguishable.
This
is what has allowed the rulers themselves to become the main businesspeople and
investors in Angola, so that their private interests overrule the national
interest. The state coffers have become in effect their private purses.
This
indiscrimination of interests is inimical to any type of competitiveness. The
telecommunications industry provides a typical example. The mobile phone
service provider Movicel, which had been one of the biggest state enterprises,
was privatised in 2009 to the benefit of political leaders. Today the mobile
phone services in Angola are provided by a duopoly of Movicel and Unitel, both
of which are owned by political leaders and their families and the state
itself. Since customers have no alternative, the companies can charge
exorbitant prices for mediocre services.
Angolan
citizens outside the circles of power generally do not have the freedom to add
value to the national economy by taking the initiative of private enterprise.
Even if they try, the regulatory framework is enough to stifle their
creativity, their ambition and the possibility of expanding their business.
In
key sectors of the economy such as petroleum, it is already common practice for
state officials to allow foreign investors’ access to the Angolan market only
on condition that a percentage of the shares be allocated to shell companies
owned by the officials themselves.
Another
interesting point from the MPLA Politburo’s statement is the way in which it
encourages the executive “to implement the [economic diversification] programme
rigorously and firmly, so as to reduce the national economy’s dependence on the
petroleum sector”. To this end, the Politburo “recommends special attention to
specialist training so as to supply the qualified personnel needed by the
programme”.
A
public statement by the MPLA parliamentary bench in November referred to the
approval of the General State Budget for 2014 as a continuation of the National
Development Plan. This is where the confusion lies. First, the head of the
government, who introduced the Politburo’s plan, is also the leader of the
MPLA, José Eduardo dos Santos. Who, then, is demanding rigour and firmness from
whom? Or is it simply a matter of rhetoric? Dos Santos demanding rigour and
firmness of himself?
Second,
how can one train specialists in time for them to be employed in a fast-track
economic diversification programme? The specialists the MPLA is referring to
need higher education. A university course takes at least four years, and even
after that one cannot be sure that graduates will immediately have the relevant
professional skills.
The
other major problem is that the level of professional training has to do with
the MPLA’s specialist committees. Where it comes to appointing people to work
in the state administration, party membership and cronyism are more important
than professional competence. Nothing is being done to end the partisan nature
of the state.
The
appointment of Kundi Paihama as the governor of Huambo province is proof of how
the president operates. Huambo was once Angola’s second industrial centre, but
Paihama is incapable of doing anything but spreading terror and promoting
monopolies. He should have retired when he turned 70. Although there is no
shortage of well-trained young people, the MPLA continues to rely on the old
guard, which has no vision or new ideas for the country.
Above
all, the MPLA and its president must clean up the state administration by
rigorously enforcing the separation of private and state interests. They must
then press ahead with devolving powers. The structure of the economy will
change only once power has been decentralised through thoroughgoing reforms in
the state apparatus. This is essential if there is to be an effective
separation of powers between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary,
as well as the exercise of checks and balances to maintain accountability over
the actions of government.
Realistically,
all this will be possible only in the post-Dos Santos era. President dos Santos
himself is the main obstacle to the reforms the country needs.
