ANGOLA PRESIDENT'S BIRTHDAY BASH COSTS TAXPAYERS $35M

The Angola Government spent $35m to mark President José Eduardo dos Santos' 72nd birthday, private media reported.

Mr dos Santos, who celebrated his birth on August 28, is Africa's second longest serving president after Equatorial Guinea's Theodoro Obiang' Nguema.

He has been in power since September 1979 following the death of Agostinho Neto.

According to clubK Angola news agency, the figure was based on the number and size of activities that were undertaken in the whole country.

“The country’s Culture ministry spent over $6m on hosting international public figures to talk about the Angolan President,” the report said.

UN Secretary-General's representative in Angola Magareth Anstee, Nigeria's former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Namibian President Sam Nujoma were among those hosted.

“An international hockey tournament and a basketball competition were organised at the cost of $1.5m each,” the reported added.

The celebrations, according to the report, also involved a talk about the president's commitment to the pacification of Great Lakes countries, organised by the Defence ministry, which cost $600,000.

A dinner for 500 guests cost $1m.

President dos Santos' political journey goes back to 1961 when he founded the youth wing of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) to aid the country's struggle for independence from Portugal.

In November 1975, he was named Foreign Affairs minister, before being appointed to the Planning docket in 1978.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR PRESIDENT