Angolan President Joao Lourenco dismissed his predecessor’s son as head of the country’s $5 billion sovereign wealth fund, state-owned Angola Press reported.
Lourenco fired Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s son, Jose Filomeno dos Santos and the entire board of the Fundo Soberano de Angola, the Luanda-based news agency reported, citing a presidential decree. Carlos Alberto Lopes will take over the company’s presidency, it said.
Since replacing Dos Santos, Lourenco has removed the former president’s daughter, Isabel, as chairwoman of the state-owned oil company Sonangol, and fired the central bank governor and the head of diamond company Endiama. He’s also terminated management contracts for state TV channels with two of Dos Santos’ younger children. The string of dismissals has earned Lourenco the nickname of the “relentless remover.”
Lourenco, a former defense minister, on Monday said he’d continue shaking up the business environment inherited from Dos Santos, who ruled for 38 years and whose family and allies still control huge sectors of the economy of Africa’s second-biggest oil producer. Under Lourenco’s leadership, all public building projects will have to go through tender processes instead of being directly granted, he said.
