RAFAEL MARQUES DE MORAIS: Isabel dos Santos — hated and isolated
Africa’s richest woman, fired from her post as head of Angola’s state oil company, is fighting back to reclaim her former position
Africa’s richest woman, the Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, is painting a portrait of herself worthy of juvenile attention-seeking YouTubers. Yet she is giving public shape to the most important struggle faced by the ruling elite of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) since Angola’s fight for independence: control of the country’s economic resources. Recently, the daughter of former president José Eduardo dos Santos recorded a self-congratulatory video to explain that she paid herself 17 months’ salary in a period of 18 months when she served as the chair of Angola’s state-owned oil company, Sonangol. She was fired from the job in November by the current president, João Lourenço. The new CEO of Sonangol, Carlos Saturnino, alleges that Isabel dos Santos spent over US$160m on the services of consultancies, much of which were provided by her own shell companies, such as Wise Intelligence Solutions. Furthermore, it is said that after she was sacked, she made...
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