PREVIEW
Mending the fences with some in the Dos Santos clan may not do much for the President’s political standing
President João Lourenço’s pardoning of José Filomeno dos Santos, aka Zenú, the son of his predecessor President José Eduardo dos Santos, who had been imprisoned for fraud, marks the latest softening in approach towards the former First Family. To many Angolans it looks like to ploy to co-opt a political clan that the President had previously condemned as unspeakably corrupt.
Zenú was one of 51 individuals to be pardoned by presidential decree to mark the 50th anniversary of Angola’s independence from Portugal. The president’s office added that the decree sought to promote a ‘climate of harmony, leniency, indulgence, concord, and fraternity.’
Lourenço has promised further pardons and presidential decrees over the course of 2025. The Dos Santos family has been in the crosshairs of Lourenco’s government since he took over the presidency in 2017 (AC Vol 61 No 23, Mounting protests face police violence).
In April, Angola's constitutional court voided Zenú’s 2020 conviction for money laundering when he ran the US$5 billion national sovereign wealth fund after $500 million was transferred from the National Bank of Angola to an account in the United Kingdom (Dispatches, 9/4/24, A win for the Dos Santos clan). Three others, including the former governor of Angola’s national bank, were also sentenced.
The pardons do not help Zenú’s sisters, Welwitschia 'Tchizé' and Isabel dos Santos, both of whom are in exile and are accused of misusing state funds but have not been indicted in Angola, despite an Interpol Red Notice having been issued to ‘locate and provisionally arrest’ them.
Isabel dos Santos has attempted to fight back with media appearances in recent weeks after being described by the UK government as a ‘notorious kleptocrat’ and slapped with an asset freeze and travel ban in November.
The former First Daughter ‘systematically abused her positions at state-run companies to embezzle at least £350m ($443m), depriving Angola of resources and funding for much-needed development,’ stated the British government. Dos Santos denies any wrongdoing, describing the sanctions as part of a politically-motivated ‘witch hunt’ against her. She added that she is mulling a run for the presidency.
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