The Platform for African Democrats – a gathering of African leaders committed to democracy and accountability – held its third annual meeting in Angola on 14 March 2025, despite every effort by the Angolan regime to prevent the meeting from taking place.
In recognizing the centrality of democracy to improving African governance, the PAD was established in 2023 as a forum to strengthen the performance of African political parties by sharing experiences and identifying best electoral and party political practices.
The location was chosen since Angola is the current Chair of the African Union. The same weekend, the African Union held its summit in Addis Ababa to hand over authority to President João Lourenço. It should be noted that the theme of the AU over the next year is ‘Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations’.
The Benguela event, entitled ‘The Future of Democracy in Africa’, was to build on previous PAD summits in Gdansk, Poland and Cape Town, South Africa, where ways of bringing greater openness and democratic accountability in the face of growing authoritarianism were discussed.
The PAD is hosted by an international consortium of democrats, including The Brenthurst Foundation and the World Liberty Congress. The event in Benguela was to be attended by several past heads of state and dignitaries, members of government, and leaders from civil society and opposition parties.
Among those who flew to Angola were HEs Ian Khama, the former President of Botswana, Moeketsi Majoro, the former Prime Minister of Lesotho, Andrés Pastrana Arango, the former President of Colombia, and Othman Shariff, First Vice President of Zanzibar.
The Angolan regime responded to the meeting with the following steps:
- Several delegates were refused visas for ‘technical reasons’, including those from Uganda.
- Twelve delegates – who either had visas or were eligible for visas on arrival – were held at the airport and deported before being allowed to enter, including guests from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Sudan.
- Another group including President Khama, Prime Minister Majoro, President Pastrana,
Vice-President Othman and 24 others were detained at the airport for as long as nine hours with no explanation. Their passports were returned and they were released when it was too late for them to make the scheduled flight to Benguela.
- The government claimed that it would make up for these actions by providing transport to get the delegates to Benguela the following day. However, several vehicles ‘broke down’ en
route to the airport, several different airport destinations were given, and ultimately no aircraft was made available.
The above actions point to a systematic and cynical campaign to attack and undermine progress towards democracy and accountability in Africa by a regime which presents itself as a democracy. At no point were those held given any explanation for their detention or for the deportation of the others.
The true nature of the Angolan regime has been exposed. It is willing to humiliate and embarrass former African heads of government and those wishing to discuss democracy in a desperate attempt to hold back the tide of progress towards people-centred societies in Africa.
Through his security and immigration officials, President João Lourenço has demonstrated an unwillingness to countenance even the discussion of ideas around democracy by fellow Africans concerned with moving the continent forward to a future where all its people benefit from its incredible wealth of resources.
We, the undersigned invitees and participants in the Benguela meeting condemn these actions in the strongest possible terms. We call on President Lourenço to issue a public apology to the heads of state who were held, the delegates who were deported and those who were harassed by his regime’s efforts to halt the meeting.
This experience has had the opposite effect to that intended by the Angolan regime.
African democrats emerge from this experience stronger than ever and in solidarity with democrats outside the continent. The events in Luanda and Benguela have shown how ‘authoritarian democracies’ systematically abuse their structures to retain power at the expense of their people while pretending to maintain democratic niceties.
The fight for democracy, openness and accountability is stronger than ever. Those resisting change are an impediment to the future of Africa and an embarrassment to democrats everywhere. But this calls for renewed energy, action and unity by democrats. There is no greater solidarity than the one that is built under pressure.
The struggle for democracy in Angola is the struggle for democracy elsewhere in Africa and everywhere.
14 March 2025
For Press Queries Contact:
Henry Sands, SABI Strategy, henry.sands@sabistrategy.com
+44-7979-751603
Issued by:
Abel Chivukuvuku (Hon), PRAJA-Servir Angola, Angola
Adalberto Costa Júnior (Hon), President: National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, Angola Adriano Sapinãla (Mr), Luanda Provincial Secretary: UNITA, Angola
Akossi Noël Bendjo (Mr), Co-ordinator General of Democratic Party, Ivory Coast Albertina Navita Ngolo (Ms), Deputy Chair: UNITA Parliamentary Group, Angola
