Angola declares five days of mourning for José Eduardo dos Santos

Luanda  — Angola started five days of national mourning at the weekend after its former president, José Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled for nearly four decades, died.

The 79-year-old died on Friday at the Teknon clinic in Barcelona, Spain, where he was being treated after a prolonged illness, according to the statement.

His successor, President Joao Lourenco, declared five days of national mourning and described Dos Santos as a “unique figure of the Angolan homeland”.

President Cyril Ramaphosa offered  condolences to Angola and said Dos Santos had helped in the fight against apartheid.

Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa hailed the good relationship fostered by Dos Santos between the two countries.

He was an influential figure in Angolan and African politics for for nearly four decades and the country’s second president after Antonio Agostinho Neto. He rarely gave speeches or interviews, reports say. 

Dos Santos stepped down five years ago. His rule was marked by a civil war lasting nearly three decades against US-SA backed Unita rebels, which he won in 2002, and a subsequent oil-fuelled boom.

Angola became Africa’s second-largest oil producer and third-largest producer of diamonds during his time in office. 

Despite being handpicked by dos Santos to succeed him, Lourenco swiftly moved to investigate allegations of multibillion-dollar corruption during the former president’s era.

Dos Santos’s daughter, Tchizé, said in an Instagram post that “fathers never die because they are the truest love that children know in all their lives. They live forever within us”.

Her lawyer, Carmen Varela, said she has asked the clinic where he died to keep his body in Spain for a full autopsy rather than it being returned directly to Angola. The clinic declined to comment.

Angolan journalist and rights activist Rafael Marques de Morais, an outspoken critic of Dos Santos, wrote on an anti-corruption website that Dos Santos’ political legacy “will not be missed but it leaves suffering”.

Tributes and criticism also came from ordinary citizens. Júlia João, a 44-year old homeworker in Luanda, said Dos Santos had presided well over the peaceful transition after the war, but squandered the chance to transform Angola.

“It was a lost opportunity for Angola,” she said.

Reuters