In late January there were reports in the local press that the Angolan police force was threatening to strike over poor pay and working conditions. Police officers have been campaigning for salary increases and overdue promotions to compensate for what they complain are considerable discrepancies between their job descriptions and their actual activities. In May 2010 the Ministry of the Interior issued a decree to overhaul the pay scale in the police force, but there has been little progress in implementing it. Although the force's most senior officers were promoted en masse in late September, the rank and file of the force have still not seen their salaries or positions adjusted. The police chiefs have blamed the Ministry of Finance for failing to provide sufficient funding for the changes, a reflection of the domestic financing crisis that the government has been through over the past year. In the end, the strike-which had been due to take place on February 28th, the 35th anniversary of the police force's founding-does not appear to have gone ahead, but resentment remains.

Strike action by the police force, whether real or threatened, has come at an awkward time for the government, which, like other authoritarian regimes in Africa, is wary of public anger in the wake of the uprisings affecting North Africa. In early March there were calls by several local MPLA members to hold protests against the government and the continuing presidency of José Eduardo dos Santos, who has been Angolan president since 1979. However, it remains to be seen whether the notoriously fractured opposition forces can coalesce into a meaningful movement that can force radical political change in Angola.