Month: June 2014

Angola: The Dos Santos family’s private property

President José Eduardo dos Santos has been transferring state resources to the private ownership of his family so openly that there is only one possible conclusion: Angola is the private property of the Dos Santos family. On 19 May 2014, Petroleum Minister José Botelho de Vasconcelos signed Executive Decree no. 159/14, which transferred 10 percent of the shares held by Sonangol P&P (the Research and Production subsidiary of the National Oil Company) in the oil exploration Bloc 4/05 to a company called Prodoil, owned by the president’s youngest sister, Marta dos Santos. The minister did this on the basis of “powers delegated by the President of the Republic …)”. As a result of the transfer, the exploration bloc’s shareholding now comprises Sonangol P&P (40%), Statoil (20%), Somoil (15%), Acrep (15%) e Prodoil (10%). The first time the president gave his sister a gift of oil exploration shares was on 27 October […]

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Angolan Police Holds Six Children Aged Seven to 13 in Jail

Six children have been in detention since Thursday at the Luanda Provincial Criminal Investigation Directorate (DPIC), accused of setting alight a Toyota Corolla car. All of those detained are boys under 13 years old. Police from the Sambizanga Division seized them without warrant at 5h00 am on  June 18 in Ngola Kiluange district. Police say they were acting on a complaint by the supposed owner of the car, who allegedly had credible evidence but who “up to now has not been able to present it to DPIC”. Family members of the detained boys say that “the owner of the car in question was in the patrol car pointing out the houses to the police”. “The same man was in the police car when they came to get my son at 5am. It was he who showed them,” said António Domingos, whose seven-year-old son Costa Domingos was the youngest of those […]

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