Africa Oil & Gas: Angola’s Lourenco Cleaning House

João Lourenço, the recently elected president of Angola is letting no grass grow under his feet when it comes to making it his regime. According to reports out of the country, Lourenco is making moves to remove former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos’ key allies out of prime government positions.

The new president’s moves help remove doubts that he would be little more than a puppet of the dos Santos family.

President João Lourenço’s government has removed José Filomeno dos Santos (aka Zenu), son of former President José Eduardo dos Santos, from direct control of Angola’s US$5 billion sovereign wealth fund, according to Africa Confidential.

Some dos Santos loyalists who are now out of the administration are vice president Manuel Vicente and Minister of State Manuel “Kopelipa” Hélder Vieira Dias Jr. Dos Santos’ daughter Isabel dos Santos runs state-run oil and gas firm Sonangol, and while she still has her job, Lourenco appointed Carlos Saturnino, who was sacked by Isabel dos Santos last year, as Secretary of State for Oil, a technically more senior role than that of dos Santos.