Joao Lourenco was elected to succeed President Jose Eduardo dos Santos in 2017 after peaceful elections.
Joao Lourenco was inaugurated on September 26, 2017 as the country’s first new president since 1979. He ran as a candidate for the ruling MPLA, for which he was considered a loyal party soldier.
Here is the percentage of votes and composition of Parliament according to the published results;
- MPLA 61.07% – 150 MPs
- Unita 26.67% – 51 deputies
- Casa CE 9.44% – 16 MPs
Campaign promise by Joao Lourenco
At the time of his presidential campaign, JoaoLourenco vowed to be the president of all and clean up the mess of his predecessor, who continues to chair the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). He also pledged to stop corruption and mismanagement of the fund.
However, the fact that he was deemed loyal to the MPLA raised doubts that despite the change in leadership there would be major differences in Angola.
Shocking movements
To surprise doubters that his predecessor Dos Santos doesn’t have much control over him, Lourenco has identified his key allies.
More recently, he has sacked those at the top of management in a number of public utilities, including oil, the diamond industry, the media and the central bank. This action affected Dos Santos’ daughter, Isabel Dos Santos, the richest woman in Africa, who served as head of the state oil company. She was replaced by former Secretary of State for Oil Carlos Saturnino, whom she fired during her tenure.
The princess’ removal from her throne (the country’s top source of income) reduced her wealth but did not dethrone her as the continent’s richest woman, according to Forbes’ 2018 list of Africa’s richest billionaires.
As if Angola’s new president didn’t prove that enough, he also sacked former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos’ son as head of Angola’s $5 billion sovereign wealth fund following investigations into the fund’s governance and performance.
This shows that ex-President Dos Santos and his family may still have a huge impact, which is not surprising considering he ruled for over 38 years, but they may no longer be untouchable as long as Joao Lourenco reigns.
Everything you should know about Angola’s new President Joao Lourenco
- Joao Lourenco was born in 1954 in the port cityof Lobito. He joined the Marxist MPLA, one of three liberation movements that seized power in the capital Luanda, and waged a bloody war against the rebel movements UNITA and FNLA. In August 1974, he was among the first group of MPLA soldiers to invade Angolan territory via Miconge, towards the town of Cabinda, after the fall of the Portuguese colonial regime.
- Lourenco comes from a humble background: his father is a medical worker and his mother is a seamstress.
- Joao Lourenço studied at the Luanda Industrial Institute and later took part in the liberation struggle in Ponta Negra. The MPLA’s war against the rebels became young Lourenco’s first career field.
- Lourenco was the first vice president of the MPLA. He served as the country’s defense minister from April 2014 and was appointed vice president of the MPLA in August 2016.
- In 2003, he almost killed his political career when he presented himself as a possible successor to the country’s highest political office when dos Santos openly considered resigning, but dos Santos actually had no such plans to resign. Dos Santos just wanted to find out if there were opponents within the MPLA with ambitions for power.
- After that, it took Joao Lourenco 10 years to recover from the faux pas. However, he rejoined the fold in December 2016. At the suggestion of party leader dos Santos, the ruling party’s Central Committee decided to put Lourenco as number 1 on its ticket for the August 2017 election, making him the party’s presidential candidate.
- During the course of his campaign, Lourenco denounced his political opponents as “crooks” and announced that if he won, a major fight against corruption would begin in Angola. He stated that the country needs transparency and stability, adding that the only way to further the MPLA government’s new goals is to diversify Angola’s economy and attract foreign investors.
- Joao Lourenco is married to Ana Afonso DiasLourenço, Member of Parliament of the MPLA and former Minister of Planning, worked at the World Bank in Washington until October 2016. They have six children.