To get the oldest daughter of former President Josè Eduardo Dos Santos into the dock, Angolan authorities will have to extradite her from London.

Former President Josè Eduardo Dos Santos, dubbed by the watchdog group Transparency International as one of the most corrupt leaders on the planet, put his daughter in charge of Angola’s state-owned oil company Sonangol in 2016. 

She was sacked a year later by her father’s successor Joao Lourenco.

Thousands of  documents allegedly showing how she crookedly  accumulated more than two billion dollars of Angolan public money have been leaked to the media – spurring the corruption charges.

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$3billion of this comes from the country’s sovereign wealth fund.

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Angolan Justice Minister Francisco Queiroz did not give much detail when he made this disclosure to a conference in Abu Dhabi other than to say the stolen money had been siphoned off at home and abroad by corruption and money laundering.

Since becoming President in 2017, Joao Lourenco has sought to stop the drain of public money into the pockets of his predecessor Jose Eduardo Dos Santos and his family.

The former President’s son Jose Filomeno is on trial for a $500 million payment into a London bank account from the sovereign wealth fund he managed.

Lourenco has also sacked Dos Santos’ daughter Isabel – Africa’s richest woman – as head of country’s state oil company.

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Both the government and Savimbi’s UNITA  movement are blaming each other.

Having fought  one of the longest and bitterest wars in Africa, it is not surprising that Angola’s MPLA-led government and the former rebel movement UNITA still have their differences.

President Joao Lourenco is hoping that moving  the remains of  Jonas Savimbi from Moxico, where he died in battle 17 years ago, to his hometown of Lopitanga will be a positive act of reconciliation.

UNITA is now saying the government is acting in  bad faith.

The government, counters that UNITA officials were not at the first meeting point in the complex process of moving Savimbi’s remains. 

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Jose Filomeno dos Santos was sacked in January as manager of Angola’s $5-billion sovereign wealth fund.

Jose Filomeno dos Santos is the most high profile target in President Joao Lourenco’s fight against corruption in the oil rich state he has been at the helm of since Jose Eduardo dos Santos stood down last year.

The former President’s daughter Isabella, who is reputedly the richest woman in Africa, has been relieved her job as head of Angola’s state-owned oil company.

Jose Filomeno’s Swiss-Angola friend Jean-Claude Bastos has also been arrested.

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Luanda’s President Joao Lourenco says their future relationship will be characterised by  common sense and pragmatism.

Angola’s never forgiven Portugal for quitting  a fiercely fought liberation war  in 1974  without handing power to any party.

This left the former colony fighting an exhausting civil war that lasted 28 years.

Before the slump in oil prices, Angola had become a major investor in cash-strapped Portugal that was forced to take a $100 billion bailout from the  European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Meeting in Luanda, President Joao Lourenco and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa agreed to develop future relations to the mutual prosperity  of both countries.

Lourenco will visit Lisbon in November.

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Ramaphosa’s the current chair of the regional Southern African Development Community.

Angola currently heads SADC’s Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation. So Presidents Cyril Ramaphosa and Joao Lourenco have a heavy schedule of regional priorities to cover  in Luanda tomorrow.

The South African President has first hand experience as regional mediator in Lesotho’s protracted political miasma.

Ramaphosa moves on to Windhoek for discussions with Namibian President Heine Giengob.

On Saturday, Ramaphosa will be in Gaborone, the site of the secretariat for the 15-nation grouping,  for talks with Botswana President Ian Khama.

He’ll be accompanied by his new Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Lindiwe

Sisulu and Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula

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Their meeting, already postponed once, meant they could not attend the inauguration of Zimbabwe’s new president Emmerson Mnangawa who they wished well as he steers his country through its transition process.

Presidents Jacob Zuma and Joao Lourenco raised the structured bilateral mechanism between South Africa and Angola to the level of the Bi-National Commission which will be presided over by the heads of state.

The presidents added to the thirty-three agreements and memoranda of understanding between the countries.

They believe the agreed  visa waiver for ordinary passport holders will facilitate easy movement of people between the two countries.

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It’s a dramatic move away from the moves made by his predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos to retain control of the levers of Angola’s economic wealth.

President Joao Lourenco has his work cut out meeting his promise to clear up corruption in his oil-rich country.

Transparency International lists Angola as the most corrupt country on the planet.

That was during the more than three-decade rule of Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

His daughter became Africa’s richest woman and expected to continue milking the country as its oil chief.

Last week papers leaked from an international legal firm showed how Dos Santos’ son Jose Filomeno paid tens of millions of dollars to friend he appointed to manage the country’s sovereign wealth fund.

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He’s one of 26 invited heads of state, a dozen of whom have already arrived.

Angola’s foreign affairs department says Russian President Vladimir Putin, British premier Theresa May, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Egyptian leader Abdelfatah El Sisi have been to the inauguration …

…that will bring Luanda to a stop today.

A raft of African leaders have already arrived in Angola.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame touched down shortly before his South Africa  counterpart Jacob Zuma last night.

Zuma’s expressed the desire to have relations established during the liberation struggles in both countries translate into significant bilateral trade and investment.

In addition to meeting with President Joao Lourenco, Zumas will see outgoing president Jose Eduardo Dos Santos and have bilateral meetings with a number of African peers.

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