Activist and journalist Rafael Marques has asked the Attorney General of the Republic of Angola to reverse the appointment of Isabel dos Santos as president of Sonangol, the Angolan state oil and gas company.
Marques accused president Eduardo dos Santos of having named his daughter as the oil comany chief by presidential decree, thus avoiding the inconvenience of parliamentary accord.
The Angolan activist has filed three applications with the Prosecutor-General to have Isabel dos Santos removed from her post as he claims the June appointment is unconstitutional.
"In matters of strategic natural resources, the president can not change the rules as he pleases," says Rafael Marques. "He has to ask parliament for ratification. Eduardo dos Santos did not ask, and therefore the Sonangol appointment is unconstitutional," adding that “The president uses his decrees to award state contracts to his family.”
Isabel dos Santos, dubbed the richest woman in Africa and a large investor in Portugal, says she will bring openness and efficiency to the 40-year-old state-owned company and will restore it to profitability.
Angola is the largest oil producer in Africa, mainly due to supply problems in Nigeria, and the appointment, argue Eduardo dos Santos supporters, is so that the baton is passed to someone trustworthy.
Detractors say that the dynasty and family power are the driving forces behind the appointment and that much of Isabel dos Santo's remarkable business career has been build on contractual favouritism granted by her father.
In an interview with Reuters, Isabel dos Santos said, “Our objective is to increase the revenue, efficiency and transparency of the company. We want to implement governance rules to international standards.”
Following Portugal’s departure from Angola in 1975, the country engaged in a civil war which lasted 27 years, ending in 2002 since which President dos Santos has exerted a vice-like grip on all aspects of Angola’s society and its economy where he has overseen an economic and construction boom based on oil royalties but still the average wage is under USD2 per day.
The recent collapse in the international oil price has hit Angola with a struggling currency and a recent application for help lodged at the IMF and the World Bank.
Angola is nominally a democracy and the main opposition party, the Union for the Total Independence of Angola has demanded that parliament opens an inquiry into Sonangol.
If Isabel dos Santos does clean up Sonangol, her father may be out of pocket. The president is accused of stealing a large percentage of oil revenue commissions during his rule for his personal benefit.
USD32 billion is known to be missing from Angola's national accounts in the decade to 2012.
http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/7193-angola-40-years-of-freedom-40-years-of-corruption
