UNITA faction comes of age

UNITA-Renovada, the offshoot of Jonas Savimbi’s rebel movement, at the weekend celebrated its second anniversary as a political party. Its president, Eugenio Manuvakola, was quoted as saying that the party was transforming itself into a civilian party with democratic principles: “We are a different UNITA, therefore the new leadership wants a greater amount of transparency in its political actions, a greater democratisation, and on this basis UNITA is finding itself a place among the national political forces.” Manuvakola said Savimbi did not have any basis to continue to insist on war as the country rejected armed struggle as a way of solving political problems.