{"id":13950,"date":"2012-08-28T03:18:37","date_gmt":"2012-08-28T01:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/08\/rich-poor-divide-scars-angola-as-it-heads-for-polls\/"},"modified":"2012-08-28T03:18:37","modified_gmt":"2012-08-28T01:18:37","slug":"rich-poor-divide-scars-angola-as-it-heads-for-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rich-poor-divide-scars-angola-as-it-heads-for-polls\/","title":{"rendered":"Rich-poor divide scars Angola as it heads for polls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Angola to elect lawmakers, president on Friday<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Long-serving President Dos Santos expected to win<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Government has invested in rebuilding after long civil war<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Critics say it is corrupt, has done little for poor<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Shrikesh Laxmidas<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>HUAMBO, Angola, Aug 28 (Reuters) &#8211; A four-lane avenue separates the shelled ruins of the art deco Ruacana Cinema from Huambo&#8217;s shiny new Chinese-built railway station, a symbol of the leaps Angola has made to recover from a devastating 27-year civil war that ended a decade ago.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>As Angolans prepare to go to the polls on Friday for only the second time since the end of the war, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos&#8217;s ruling MPLA party reminds them daily of the rewards of peace and boasts of its reconstruction achievements.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In power for nearly 33 years in Africa&#8217;s second-largest oil producer after Nigeria, Dos Santos &#8211; who turns 70 on Tuesday &#8211; is expected to lead his party to a one-sided election win thanks to his political dominance and his carefully cultivated official image as guarantor of Angola&#8217;s peace and rebuilding.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were at the abyss for a long time, now &#8230; we can see the great gains,&#8221; said Joao Limpinho, a government-employed signals manager at the railway terminal at Huambo, Angola&#8217;s second city, 600 kilometres (375 miles) southeast of Luanda.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Angola to elect lawmakers, president on Friday * Long-serving President Dos Santos expected to win * Government has invested in rebuilding after long civil war * Critics say it is corrupt, has done little for poor By Shrikesh Laxmidas HUAMBO, Angola, Aug 28 (Reuters) &#8211; A four-lane avenue separates the shelled ruins of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-13950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}