Angola's president: 'no negotiations' with Isabel dos Santos
February 3, 2020
In an exclusive with DW, Angolan President Joao Lourenco spoke for the first time about allegations against Africa's richest woman, Isabel dos Santos. He also defended his role in a government led by her father.
Image: DW/M. Luamba
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Angolan President Lourenco speaks with DW about dos Santos
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Reports of corruption have blighted Angola since President Joao Lourenco took office in 2017, despite campaign promises to reform the economy and tackle graft.
In the latest headline-grabbing scandal, Isabel dos Santos, known as Africa's richest woman, was accused of using her father's influence to help build a business empire worth an estimated $2.1 billion (€1.9 billion), in an affair widely known as the Luanda Leaks scandal.
In an exclusive interview with DW's Adrian Kriesch, the Angolan president spoke for the first time about the scandal. Lourenco said no one was exempt in the fight against corruption in Angola, and that there would be "no negotiations" with people who had allegedly taken their assets out of the country illegally.
"There was an opportunity to do so [negotiate]," said Lourenco. "People who were involved in acts of corruption benefited from a six-month period of grace to return assets they illegally took out of the country."
Those alleged grafters include Isabel dos Santos, the eldest daughter of Lourenco's predecessor, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who served as the president of Angola for 38 years.
Charges after Luanda Leaks investigation
Isabel dos Santos' assets have been frozen in Angola. On January 22, the country's prosecutors charged her with money laundering, influence peddling, harmful management, forgery of documents and other economic crimes during her time as head of the national oil company, Sonangol, from 2016 to 2017.
Lourenco, however, has taken a neutral perspective on the case, at least in public. "It is a judicial matter and I am not the judge," he said, when asked if he wanted to see Isabel dos Santos behind bars.
The charges against Isabel dos Santos were brought after an investigation into the scandal led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) using more than 715,000 leaked files. She has vehemently denied the accusations, and claims she is the target of political persecution.
Only one man has held presidential office in Angola since 1979. But now Jose Eduardo dos Santos has said he will step down after this year's elections. DW looks back at his 37-years at the top of Angolan politics.
Image: Reuters
The fight for Angolan independence
At the age of 19, Jose Eduardo dos Santos joined the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), a Marxist-inspired party fighting for Angola's freedom from Portuguese colonial rule. In 1963, dos Santos received a scholarship to study petrochemistry in the former Soviet Union, where he later went on to train in military communications. In 1970, he returned to Angola.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A place at the Cabinet table
After independence from Portugal was declared in 1975, civil war broke out between the three independence movements: the MPLA, UNITA and FNLA. The capital city Luanda was under MPLA control. The party leader, Agostinho Neto (pictured), became the first president of an independent Angola and established a one-party system. Dos Santos was appointed foreign minister and later planning minister.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Alliance with the Eastern Bloc
In September 1979, Neto died in Moscow. The MPLA chose dos Santos to be the new president of Angola. He strengthened alliances with communist countries in the Eastern Bloc - such as the Soviet Union, Cuba and East Germany. In 1981, he visited East Germany and was received by Erich Honecker (pictured, left), the general secretary of the Socialist Unity Party.
During his stay in East Germany, dos Santos visited the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Wall - both symbols of the Cold War and the divide between East and West. In Angola, the Cold War had turned into a "hot" proxy war. The West - particularly South Africa and the United States - supported UNITA, while the East stood with the MPLA.
Image: Bundesarchiv
Side-by-side with Cuba
Cuba took the militarily weak MPLA government under its wing. It sent 40,000 soldiers to fight in Angola, for example in 1988 in the battle of Cuito Canavale - one of the deadliest in the Angolan civil war. Three years later, an initial peace accord was signed in Portugal.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
The peace deal breaks down
The first free elections took place in 1992. The MPLA won a parliamentary majority but dos Santos did not secure an outright victory in the first round of the presidential election. The runoff against Jonas Savimbi, the leader of UNITA, never took place. War broke out again after UNITA rejected the elections, casting allegations of vote-rigging.
Image: picture-alliance / dpa
The West loses interest
Once the Cold War was over, the West lost interest in the Angolan civil war. In 1993, the US recognized the MPLA government, which was increasingly embracing capitalism. After Apartheid had come to an end in South Africa, UNITA lost its most important ally. A 1994 peace deal in Angola also broke down, and dos Santos went into full-on military mode.
Image: Jörg Böthling/Brot für die Welt
Wading into the Congo Crisis
In 1998, the Angolan military came to the aid of Laurent-Desire Kabila (pictured) during the Congo crisis. By helping Kabila become president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, dos Santos was able to remove one of UNITA's areas of refuge. This move also established Angola as a leading military power in southern Africa.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/P.Wojazer
Taking down Savimbi
An international weapons embargo weakened UNITA, which was becoming increasingly isolated. On February 22, 2002, government troops killed UNITA's leader Jonas Savimbi (pictured). In the same year, UNITA and MPLA signed another peace deal. This brought one of Africa's bloodiest civil wars - in which 1 million people died and 4 million fled the country - to an end.
Image: AP
Reminders of war
Many years after the end of the civil war, the destruction is still evident across the country. The armed forces continued to play an important role in the Angolan president's leadership. Clashes between government forces the separatist group FLEC still occur regularly in the northern enclave of Cabinda.
Image: gemeinfrei
Postponed elections
The second parliamentary elections, planned for 1997, did not take place until 2008. The MPLA emerged victorious, with 81.6 percent of the votes, while UNITA secured 10.4 percent. There were complaints of voter intimidation and poor organization. The 2009 presidential election was called off and dos Santos stayed in power.
Image: Reuters
An uncertain partnership
In 2011, German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Angola and even signed a "strategic partnership" with dos Santos. German companies initially showed interest in investment opportunities in Angola - but few projects actually came to fruition in subsequent years.
Image: dapd
Stifling the opposition
Inspired by the Arab Spring, young Angolans took to the streets in 2011 to protest against dos Santos. The police used force to suppress demonstrations and activists were arrested. In 2013, the presidential guard shot two opposition activists. Members of the Adventist sect "Luz do Mundo" (Light of the World) were also targeted. Human rights observers accused the police of extrajudicial killings.
Image: DW/N. Sul d´Angola
Legitimate leadership
In 2010, parliament changed the constitution and abolished direct presidential elections. The leader of the party with the most votes in the parliamentary elections would become president. In 2012, the MPLA took 71.9 percent of the votes. After 32 years in office, dos Santos had democratic legitimacy for the first time. Observers argued that the opposition did not have a fair chance.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Family man
Family is also a powerful driving force behind the dos Santos leadership. He met his third and current wife, former model Ana Paula dos Santos (pictured), when she was working as a stewardess on the presidential plane. They married in 1991 and had four children. Ana Paula dos Santos will be put forward as an MPLA parliamentary candidate this year.
Image: Reuters
The richest woman in Africa
Dos Santos' daughter Isabel - who he had with his former wife, Russian chess champion Tatiana Kukanova - was named the richest woman in Africa by Forbes magazine in 2011. She has invested in businesses ranging from telecommunications to sports. Dos Santos' son José Filomeno - from his second marriage, to Filomena de Sousa - leads the state investment fund.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Scratching China's back
China is dos Santos' new best friend. The country is the main buyer of Angolan oil and Chinese credit has funded Angolan infrastructure projects. With this money, Chinese firms have built whole districts in Angola, like Kilamba Kiaxi (pictured). Unlike the IMF and western lenders, China does not impose any loan conditions based on transparency or human rights.
Image: cc by sa Santa Martha
Poverty and development
Despite the country's oil wealth, many Angolans still live in extreme poverty. The country has the highest global rate of death among infants. Even in the middle of the capital city, Luanda, there are neighborhoods without waste water disposal. Health services, which are often only offered privately, are too expensive for many people. The education system is similarly underdeveloped.
Image: DW/N. Sul d'Angola
Keeping a low profile
It is rare to see dos Santos in interviews or press conferences and he seldom gives speeches. In recent years, the president has traveled regularly to Spain for medical treatment. Only one African leader - Teodoro Obiang of Equitorial Guinea - has been in office longer than dos Santos.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/P.Novais
A successor for dos Santos
Once dos Santos announced that he would not be standing again for office in August 2017, the MPLA put forward Defense Minister Joao Lourenco (pictured) as its main candidate for the parliamentary elections. However, Dos Santos will remain the leader of the party, ensuring his continued presence in Angolan politics.
Image: Getty Images/AFP
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'Chance for change'
Responding to criticism from opposition representatives who have said Angola's justice system is still not independent, Lourenco said while it "may have been the case in the past...today they have absolute liberty to act. That is the reason why there are so many trials, particularly related to corruption."
Lourenco acknowledged his role in working under the country's ex-president and African oil mogul, and said he remains committed to tackling the country's graft problem.
"He [dos Santos] stayed in power for almost 40 years," said Lourenco. "No one can say that he or she was not a part of the system. We were all part of the system."
"It is precisely because I have seen these high levels of corruption — and because I think that situation shouldn't continue — that we are fighting what we have seen for decades," he said. "We now have got a chance for change. And this is the right time to do it."
Angola gained independence from Portugal in 1975 and was subsequently consumed by a civil war in which sides were backed by rival Cold War powers. The land boasts significant oil and mineral deposits, but these have benefited only a small section of society.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to visit the country later this week.
