PrivatisationDelays in fuel subsidy cuts echo setbacks in Angola's plans to sell stakes in some key state assets including state oil company Sonangol and numerous entities confiscated from the family of former president José Eduardo dos Santos and its allies since Lourenço's took office in 2017 (Dispatches 9/4/24 A win for the Dos Santos clan)...
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Members of the Dos Santos family have faced a series of investigations asset freezes and prosecutions since former President José Eduardo dos Santos who died in 2022 was replaced by João Lourenço in 2017...
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Isabel dos Santos daughter of Angola's former President José Eduardo dos Santos faces one of her toughest legal challenges after a Dutch court ruled last week that she had misappropriated over €50 million from Angola's national oil company while she was its chief executive...
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The MPLA also scheduled the state funeral of former President José Eduardo dos Santos for Sunday 28 August four days after polling day to distract the electorate from protesting and as an excuse to maintain high security the opposition claimed (Dispatches 30/8/22 Dos Santos funeral fails to quieten claims of voter fraud)...
Dos Santos divides in death Foreign dignitaries flew in including the presidents of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Mozambique Filipe Nyusi to honour the memory of President José Eduardo dos Santos whose state funeral took place four days after polling in the general election closed...
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And the MPLA government's decision to stage a state funeral on 28 August for former leader José Eduardo dos Santos who died in Spain last month triggered a new row with his family some of whom accused Luanda of using the obsequies to silence protests against claims of electoral fraud (AC Vol 63 No 15 Dos Santos haunts Lourenço's campaign)...
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The state funeral for José Eduardo dos Santos whose remains were returned on 20 August with no ceremony will take place after the election...
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Until 21 August former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos's body was in Barcelona being fought over by his daughters Isabel and Welwitschia 'Tchizé' on one side and his first wife Tatiana and the government on the other...
If it does win it won't be on the strength of the MPLA's economic record since Lourenço took over from former President José Eduardo dos Santos in September 2017 despite a recent improvement in Angola's growth prospects as it emerges from half a decade of recession...
The legal and reputational battle after the news on 8 July that President José Eduardo dos Santos had died in Barcelona following a stroke is damaging the ruling Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA) ahead of elections on 24 August...
President Lourenço was elected on the basis of ending the relentless pillaging of state assets by the MPLA elite during the 39 years President José Eduardo dos Santos was in power but perceptions of corruption are little altered...
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