VZCZCXRO5191
PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHLU #0751/01 3481046
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P 141046Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY LUANDA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5841
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LUANDA 000751 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/11/2024 
TAGS: PGOV AO
SUBJECT: DESPITE TALK OF RENOVATION, MPLA CONGRESS YIELDS 
LITTLE LEADERSHIP CHANGE 
 
REF: LUANDA 00740 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Dan Mozena, Reasons 1.4(b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY.  The ruling MPLA had characterized its Sixth 
Party Congress as a time of change and continuity.  However, 
by the time the Congress closed on December 10, continuity 
clearly had won out.  There were no changes whatsoever in 
senior party leadership, the Congress simply rubber stamped 
President Dos Santos's proposed membership lists for the 
Party's Central Committee and Political Bureau, and it added 
nothing discernible to the debate over the new constitution. 
The key question of succession to Dos Santos does not seem to 
have figured in the four day session.  During his speech to 
the closing session of the Congress, Dos Santos said the 
government should finish its mandate -- a comment many 
interpret to mean that presidential elections would not 
happen until 2012, when new parliamentary elections would 
choose not only members of parliament but presumably also the 
next president, who, according to the constitutional plan Dos 
Santos favors, would be the head of the list of parliamentary 
candidates of the party that wins the most seats in the 
National Assembly.    END SUMMARY. 
 
--------------------- 
LIP SERVICE TO CHANGE 
--------------------- 
 
¶2. (C) During a Dec 10 meeting at the Embassy, Minister of 
Housing and Urban Development Sita Jose stressed to the DCM 
the importance of the Congress's bringing new faces to the 
party.  He said the party had been dominated for too long by 
"velhos" (old guys) and that the party now needed "new 
blood."  He said one of the party's key objectives in 
developing the central committee list was to bring in more 
30- and 40- year olds into the leadership, putting more 
emphasis on rejuvenation of the party, rather than 
continuity. 
 
¶3. (C) Having said that, however, he also admitted that the 
new Central Committee and Political Bureau membership lists 
would contain few surprises.  In this regard, the Minister 
was right on the mark as there were no changes in senior 
party leadership with Dos Santos, MPLA Vice President de 
Almeida and Party Secretary General Dino Matross all keeping 
their seats.  Membership of the new Political Bureau was 
replete with the old guard, including Prime Minister Paolo 
Kassamo, President of the National Assembly Fernando da 
Piedade Dias Dos Santos, Defense Minister Kundi Paihama, Head 
of the Party International Division Paulo Jorge, Minister of 
Economy Manuel Jose Nunes Jr, MPLA Spokesman Kuata Kanawa, 
and MPLA's leader of the National Assembly Bornito de Sousa 
Baltazar Diogo.  The Central Committee, too, kept lots of old 
hands, including Angolan Ambassador to the U.S. Josefina 
Perpetua Pires Domingos Pitra Diakite, and did not include 
Dos Santos' son, Jose Filomeno "Zenu" dos Santos, as some had 
predicted.  President Dos Santos, who expressed surprise at 
winning though he was the only candidate for party president, 
garnered 98.7 percent of the votes (1,964 votes for and 26 
votes against out of a possible 2,080 votes in a secret 
ballot).  In previous party elections, which were done by a 
show of hands, Dos Santos had on 100 percent.  (COMMENT: US 
Embassy contacts joked that Dos Santos was probably 
surprised, wondering who the 26 persons were. END COMMENT) 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
DOS SANTOS SPEECH RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT ELECTION TIMETABLE 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
 
¶4. (C) As he had the opening session of the Congress, the 
Ambassador attended the closing session, where Dos Santos 
gave a relatively short and uninspiring speech that 
recommitted the party to the promises it had made during the 
campaign for the 2008 legislative elections.  He spoke to the 
need for food self-sufficiency, the eradication of famine, 
and the need to improve education, health, and other human 
development indicators.  He also spoke of boosting employment 
and economic growth, building one million houses, and 
distributing the country's national revenues in a more 
equitable fashion.  Echoing his opening speech, he 
underscored the need for greater transparency and good 
governance, gradual integration of Angola into the world 
economy, and gaining respect internationally. 
 
¶5. (U) Dos Santos said he wanted the MPLA to serve out its 
four-year mandate and that, "Everything indicates that the 
new constitution will change the current government system 
and set new times for the mandates of elected bodies." 
(NOTE: Dos Santos is literally referring to the party's 
legislative mandate; the MPLA won Angola's first 
parliamentary election in 2008 and holds 81 percent of the 
seats.  The party's proposed version of the constitution 
 
LUANDA 00000751  002 OF 002 
 
 
would have the president be the head of the parliamentary 
list of candidates of the party that wins the most seats in 
parliament.  END NOTE)  Domestic and international 
commentators interpret Dos Santos's comments to mean that 
electing the next president would be put off until the next 
parliamentary elections, which are slated for 2012. 
 
----------------- 
WOMEN ON THE RISE 
----------------- 
 
¶6. (C) The emotional highlight of the open sessions of the 
Congress was a precisely orchestrated procession by the 
MPLA's women's wing, consisting of several hundred 
traditionally attired women, carrying large baskets and 
basins of fruits, vegetables and fresh fish as they danced 
and sang through the aisles of the conference center.  In the 
only non-scripted moment of the open sessions, delegates and 
observers stood as a body to recognize the moving impact of 
this dazzling display of woman power. 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶7. (C) Although party leaders who chatted with the Ambassador 
on the margins of the Congress and subsequently all evinced 
grand satisfaction with the Congress, the reality is that the 
four-day conference, judging from the information available 
at this point, was entirely scripted with delegates simply 
endorsing decisions that had already been made.  If the 
Congress had been meant to inject new blood and fresh 
thinking into the leadership councils of the body, that was 
not evident as the senior ranks of the party remained 
unchanged.  Nor did the Congress bring any new thinking to 
the debate on the country's draft constitution or the looming 
issue of succession to Dos Santos.  So, in the end, the 
Congress was more show with all delegates clad in matching 
party t-shirts (though the President's was covered by a suit 
coat) and hats (only the President was bare-headed) than 
substance, and the big issues facing the country -- poverty, 
constitutional reform, and succession to Dos Santos -- remain 
for another day. 
MOZENA