Category: Corruption

Full text of the 2014 Carlos Cardoso Memorial Lecture, delivered on November 4, 2014 at Wits University. First, I would like to share with you a personal experience I had with Carlos Cardoso, the great friend I never had the chance to meet personally. Back in 1999, when I was jailed in Angola for calling president Dos Santos a dictator and corrupt, Carlos Cardoso was instrumental in mobilizing lawyers, journalists and concerned Mozambicans to lend their support to me. Upon my release, we began a regular e-mail correspondence that went beyond my legal battles, conviction, political persecution and travel ban. We broadened the conversation on teaming up to chiefly expose the scourge of corruption in both our countries. We believed in conquering the public space for the freedoms of speech and of the press to take root. We made the struggle for that public space ours. While Carlos was breaking […]

A request for the acquisition of several thousand hectares of land in Kwanza-Sul province, in the name of the chief justice of the Angolan Constitutional Court, Rui Ferreira, has raised suspicions of illegal practice. In the documents, the judge appears as the representative of a private company. This is the story. On the remains of the crumbling wall of an overgrown colonial house, someone has written: “Welcome [poster printed with a photograph of President dos Santos] to Lonhe.” The commune, part of the Quibala municipality in Kwanza-Sul province, is a place where time has stood still for its inhabitants. The polite message on the wall is much appreciated by top Angolan public officials. According to documents obtained by Maka Angola, Chief Justice Rui Ferreira and two of his children have been fast-tracked in the process of acquiring a total of 24,812 hectares of land in Lonhe. The area is three […]

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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A recent Angolan government report uncovered a network of corruption within the Office for Immigration and Foreigners (known by its Portuguese acronym SME), such as issuing illegal work visas to the value of over US$90 million, not a cent of which entered state coffers. Having seen the report, the Minister of Interior, Ângelo de Barros Veiga Tavares, took disciplinary action against those responsible. Yet the national director and the deputy national director of SME, as well as other key players in the corrupt scheme, have not lost their jobs, and so far, no legal proceedings have been initiated.     An audit undertaken by the Ministry of Interior, beginning on November 6, 2013, revealed that a network of 14 people, led by the national director of SME, José Paulino da Silva, illegally issued over 14,000 work visas in just one year. According to the report, the network was charging between […]

Within a year, senior staff at the Angolan Office for Immigration and Foreigners (known by the Portuguese acronym SME) issued more than 14,000 work visas, at a unit cost of between US$5,000 and US$15,000, with absolutely no revenue entering state coffers.   The operation has earned over US$90 million for the corrupt officials and nothing for the State. This information is part of an audit of the SME conducted by the Inspectorate of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), and delivered to the Minister of the Interior on February 6 past. Maka Angola saw the report. The investigation was opened on the November 6, 2013, by order of the Minister of the Interior, Ângelo de Barros Veiga Tavares, and its aim was to verify “how certain decisions were taken by the Ministry of the Interior, with regard to correcting irregularities, flaws and anomalies noticed in the investigation into the Office […]

África Monitor reported in its March 4 edition on two investments made recently in Portugal by the Angolan businessman António Mosquito: investments that were shown to be initiatives of Isabel dos Santos.   According to the publication, Isabel dos Santos chose “not to reveal her self” as the buyer of the purchase of 66.7 percent of the construction company Soares da Costa and of 27.5 percent of Controlinveste, a media conglomerate that owns the daily paper Diário de Notícias and the radio station TSF.   António Mosquito became chairman of Soares da Costa, and through his Grupo António Mosquito (GAM) invested €70 million (US$ 96.1 million) in the business.   Regarding the Controlinveste deal there is no information available about the size of the Angolan investment, which was made alongside an investment by Luís Montez, the son-in-law of the Portuguese President Aníbal Cavaco Silva.   The report by journalist Xavier […]