Angola’s Dos Santos set to keep control even when he steps down in 2018
Luanda/Cape Town — José Eduardo dos Santos is set to maintain control from behind the scenes when he steps down as Angola’s president next month after almost four decades in office. Dos Santos will, until at least 2018, still be leader of the Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA, the party that has ruled the Southern African nation since its independence from Portugal in 1975. And this month the government pushed a law through parliament that may enable his appointees to remain in charge of the security services. "Dos Santos has no intention of giving up power," Gary van Staden, an analyst at NKC African Economics in Paarl, said by phone. "He intends to keep the levers that serve his interests firmly in place. He is making sure all his security buddies stay in their posts and he will be protected." Dos Santos said last year that he will quit active politics in 2018. His likely successor as president is defence minister João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, who is the MPLA’s pres...
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