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Angola Policies Affecting Urban Society
Many of the difficult economic conditions existing in
Angola's
cities and towns were the result of the UNITA insurgency,
including
the almost total disruption of the transportation system
necessary
to carry produce from rural to urban areas. However, by
the late
1980s the government had recognized that much could be
blamed on
the cumbersome and ineffective mechanisms of the
centralized
economy
(see Role of the Government
, ch. 3). In 1988 the
government, faced with the continuing decline of the
manufacturing
sector, began to move away from state-controlled companies
and
promised to enact new laws that would make private
ownership
possible.
The impact of the changes in economic policy were not
immediately apparent in Luanda in 1988. The only two
sources of
goods for the capital's population were rationed and
poorly stocked
state stores and the parallel market, where the local
currency was
accepted at only a fraction of its face value. Many
foreign
businesses were giving their Angolan employees credit at a
government supermarket where they could buy food. Some
foreign
businesses set up their own stores in which their
employees could
shop. The largest parallel market operation in Luanda,
Roque
Santeiro, was only one of many that depended on European
shipments
for products such as clothing, watches, medicine, and tape
players,
as well as food. There was some indication that goods were
also
bought by insiders at state stores and resold at many
times the
price in the parallel market. Despite official rhetoric,
the
government recognized its inability to provide basic goods
to the
population and seldom interfered with parallel market
activities.
Physical living conditions in Luanda were deplorable in
1988.
The elegant marble apartment buildings that lined the
city's
downtown streets during the colonial era had become slums
with
neither running water nor electricity. Even most of those
able to
afford luxuries were living without basic conveniences or
amenities; evening activities, such as cultural events or
dining
out, were rare. And because of a lack of spare parts,
there were
few taxis or other means of transportation.
Data as of February 1989
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