Civil Administration Reform – 1998
1998
In 1998 substantial progress was made regarding the appointment of UNITA officials to administrative positions in Angola. State-run television in Angola ran a story on 16 March 1998 that President Dos Santos was firing or relieving governors and deputy-governors of their jobs throughout Angola so that he could reappoint UNITA representatives to those posts, as agreed upon in the Lusaka Accord. Angolan TV reported that “the President of the Republic today issued two decrees relieving Manuel Goncalves Mwandumba, Serafim Ananito Alexandre, and Manuel Dala from their posts as governors of Uige, Lunda Sul, and Cuando Cubango Provinces, respectively” (BBC Monitoring Africa, 1998).
The President of the Republic appointed new governors and deputy-governors proposed by UNITA to fill the above posts: Joao Domingos Manzahila, Domingos Oliveira, and Jose Cativa were appointed as governors of Uige, Lunda Sul, and Cuando Cubango Provinces, respectively; Bernardo Prata, Americo Chimina, Moises Chivemba, Jose Soma Gaspar, Manuel Bunjo, Antonio Tonga, and Campos Tomas were appointed as deputy-governors of Benguela, Huambo, Bie, Huila, Luanda, Cuanza Sul, and Bengo Provinces, respectively.1
The quota of 3 governors and seven deputy-governors was therefore implemented. No further information could be found on the other positions.
The Uppsala Conflict Data Program coded the conflict between the Angolan government and UNITA as reaching the threshold of “war” in 1998 with over 1000 total deaths in the year. Coding for this case stops December 31, 1998.