{"id":58930,"date":"2020-01-18T12:08:09","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T04:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=58930"},"modified":"2020-01-18T12:08:11","modified_gmt":"2020-01-18T04:08:11","slug":"angola-isabel-dos-santos-africas-richest-woman-eyes-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=58930","title":{"rendered":"Angola: Isabel Dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman eyes presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Isabel dos Santos is one of the wealthiest women in the world
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\u00a0LUANDA, Jan 18 (NNN-AGENCIES)\u00a0—<\/strong>Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, who is embroiled in a huge financial scandal, has suggested that she may seek to become the country’s president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her father Jos\u00e9 Eduardo dos Santos ruled Angola for 38 years. Prosecutors are seeking to recover $1bn Dos Santos and her associates are alleged to owe the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dos Santos, 46, is one of the world’s richest women, with Forbes magazine estimating her fortune to be worth $2.2bn, making her the richest woman in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her father controversially appointed her as the head of Angola’s state-owned oil firm Sonangol in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was sacked from the post in 2017 by President Joao Louren\u00e7o, her father’s handpicked successor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Refusing to rule out the possibility of running for president, she said in an interview in LONDON that she had a strong sense of patriotism and duty to her country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“To lead is to serve, so I will do whatever my life takes me,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dos Santos had also told a Portuguese television channel that “it’s possible” she might run for the presidency in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A court in the Angolan capital, Luanda, last month ordered the freezing of her bank accounts and of her vast business empire in the oil-rich country, following a string of investigations into alleged corruption by the Dos Santos family which prosecutors say has robbed the state of more than $2bn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“These are false allegations and this is part of\u2026 an orchestrated attack by the current government that is completely politically motivated,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her half-brother, Jos\u00e9 Filomeno dos Santos, is on trial in Angola on charges of corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prosecution alleges that he and his co-accused helped spirit $500m out of the country during his time as head of Angola’s Sovereign Wealth Fund. They have pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isabel Dos Santos repeatedly lashed out at President Louren\u00e7o, who succeeded her father two years ago as president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite coming from the same party, the MPLA, he has since stunned many Angolans by appearing to target the Dos Santos family as part of a broader anti-corruption drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“President Louren\u00e7o is fighting for absolute power. There’s a strong wish to neutralise any influence that [former] President Dos Santos might still have in the MPLA,” Isabel Dos Santos said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If a different candidate would appear [ahead of the 2022 presidential election] supported by former President Dos Santos or allies linked to him, that would really challenge [Louren\u00e7o’s] position because his current track record is very, very poor,” she added, citing rising unemployment, a stagnant economy and a wave of strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If she were to seek the presidency, she would first need the law to change in Angola as she is currently ineligible to stand because her mother is Russian. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isabel dos Santos is one of the wealthiest women in the world \u00a0LUANDA, Jan 18 (NNN-AGENCIES)\u00a0—Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, who is embroiled in a huge financial scandal, has suggested that she may seek to become the country’s president. Her father Jos\u00e9 Eduardo dos Santos ruled Angola for 38 years. Prosecutors are seeking to recover […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58930"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}