Angola pays last tribute to former president José Eduardo dos Santos

First modification: 08/28/2022 – 14:50Last modification: 08/28/2022 – 14:52

This farewell takes place days after legislative elections in which the country’s president was indirectly elected and which were the most disputed in history and whose results are questioned. According to preliminary results, which account for 97% of the votes cast, the party in power, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) defeated the main opposition movement Unita.

However, five members of the electoral commission declared on Saturday that “in principle they would not sign” the final results, which have not yet been released.

José Eduardo dos Santos governed Angola between 1979 and 2017 without ever having been elected by popular vote. He died on July 8 at the age of 79 in a Barcelona clinic where he was hospitalized after a heart attack. The return of his remains was the subject of dispute, since several of his children were opposed to the repatriation of the body and the Angolan government wanted to organize a state funeral. It was the Spanish justice that finally gave the green light to transfer his remains.

At mid-morning the official delegations began to arrive at the Plaza de la República, in the center of the capital. A dozen heads of state are expected to attend the funeral for the official act headed by the current president, Joao Lourenço.

The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, the Prime Minister of Gabon, Rose Christiane Ossouka, and the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, and the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, were already present. Cuba’s deputy prime minister, Ricardo Cabrisas, is among the guests, according to the Havana Foreign Ministry.

The eldest daughter of the former president, Isabel, harassed by a series of corruption investigations, wrote last week on social networks that she will not attend. Known as “the princess”, she received command of the national oil company Sonangol from her father. Later, she was ousted as part of a broad anti-corruption campaign launched by Lourenço, who was dos Santos’ chosen dauphin to succeed him, but who turned his back on this system once he was elected.

Dos Santos turned Angola, a country rich in natural resources, into one of the largest oil producers on the continent, with Nigeria. But, he also used this wealth to profit and favor his relatives, while the country remained one of the poorest in the world.

The exmandatario left power when he was almost 75 years old, with a very weak health. He then named as his successor the current president Lourenço, elected in 2017 and who is now very close to obtaining a second term.

with AFP