Angola’s new president aims to rein in Dos Santos
LUANDA: Angola’s new president Joao Lourenco is making swift moves to wrest power from his predecessor, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, pushing out some of his key allies and vowing to combat monopolies controlled by a family that has run Angola for four decades.
Dos Santos, 75, hand-picked Lourenco, 63, to succeed him when he stepped down last month after 38 years at the helm of sub-Saharan Africa’s third largest economy and second biggest oil exporter. Heavyweights from the previous administration, such as Vice-President Manuel Vicente and Minister of State Manuel “Kopelipa” Helder Vieira Dias Jr, have found themselves out of a job.
Dos Santos still retains significant power as the head of the ruling MPLA party and key posts such as the finance minister and central bank governor have not been touched.
But in the vital oil sector, responsible for 75% of gover nment revenue, Lourenco curbed the control of Dos Santos’s daughter, Isabel, who runs national oil company Sonangol. This month Lourenco appointed Carlos Saturnino, who was sacked by Isabel dos Santos last year, as secretary of state for oil, a technically more senior role than that of his old boss.
“It was unexpected at this early stage,” said Marcolino Moco, a former Angolan prime minister and critic of Dos Santos.
“It’s very early still, but Lourenco is sending a sign that the excesses of the Dos Santos era will not continue.”
Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman, denied any tension with Lourenco, saying last week that their views were in “full alignment”.
In his state of the nation address on October 16, Lourenco vowed to break up monopolies in the economy, directly mentioning the cement industry in which Isabel and her husband have large holdings.
He also abolished government communications department Grecima, with which a company co-owned by another Dos Santos daughter, Welwitschia, had lucrative contracts. The company, Semba Comunicacão, could not be reached for comment.
“Breaking the monopolies enjoyed by the Dos Santos family would be going for the jugular,” said Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, an author and expert on Angola who teaches at Oxford University.
“But there is a danger of confusing a vendetta against Dos Santos with a true reform agenda,” Oliveira said.
Major refor m is desperately needed. Although an oil boom has made Angola one of Africa’s richest countries per capita, it is also one of the world’s most unequal, with the vast majority of the population sharing little of its wealth. Angola’s economy fell into recession last year and unemployment is at least 25%. A lack of foreign currency has forced companies, such as airlines and oil services, to pull back operations. A dollar fetches three times the official rate on the black market. – Reuters