Angolan Leader Accuses Party Officials of Stoking Online Protest

(Bloomberg) -- Angolan President Joao Lourenco criticized a social-media campaign calling on people to stay away from work in protest at a spike in food prices, saying it was funded by ruling-party officials out to undermine his regime.

Angolans are facing higher costs of living since the introduction on Oct. 1 of a 14% value-added tax on all goods and services. Even before that, wholesalers and speculators already increased prices. A kilogram of beef, for example, now costs 3,450 kwanza ($8.90) in the supermarket, compared to 2,700 a few months ago. The price of a half-liter bottle of water has shot up 60%.

In recent days, anonymous messages have circulated on Facebook and WhatsApp calling on citizens to stay home on Friday. The campaign isn’t led by the opposition or by “foreign forces,” but by members of the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA, who are no longer working in government, according to Lourenco.

“The same people who diverted the resources of the country to offshore accounts just for themselves are the same using those resources to fund the destabilization campaign, the intoxication campaign against Angola,” he said in comments broadcast on national radio.

Lourenco was sworn in as president more than two years ago, marking the first leadership change in almost four decades in sub-Saharan Africa’s second-biggest oil producer. Shortly after coming to power, he fired several high-ranking officials, including Isabel Dos Santos, his predecessor’s daughter who served as chairwoman of the state oil company.

To contact the reporter on this story: Candido Mendes in Luanda at cmendes6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Pauline Bax, Jacqueline Mackenzie

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