Angola: João Lourenço sworn in as new President

Angola begins post dos Santos era as Lourenço becomes president

José Eduardo dos Santos’s long reign over Angola finally came to an end Tuesday when João Lourenço was inaugurated as president at a ceremony in the capital, Luanda.
Lourenço read an oath in which he vowed “on my honor to devote myself” to the role of president, as he took power after his party – the ruling MPLA party won last month’s election.

Dos Santos, who was at the ceremony but is reportedly in poor health, announced his retirement earlier this year, saying he would not be a candidate in the election.

The People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) has governed since Angola’s hard-fought independence from Portugal in 1975.
The party won 61 percent of the vote in August, a sharp drop in support from the previous election in 2012 as the country suffers an economic crisis triggered by the fall in oil prices.

Lourenço, 63, until recently defence minister, has vowed to attract more investment and said he wants to be recognized as a leader who brought an “economic miracle” to the southern African country.

Though seldom seen in public, dos Santos, 75, has been a looming presence in daily life for as long as most Angolans can remember. His term in office saw the end of the 1975-2002 war and a post-conflict investment boom as the country exploited its oil reserves. But the slump in crude prices in 2014 hit the country hard.

In the past few years, dos Santos has been dogged by poor health – earlier this year, his daughter Isabel was forced to deny rumours that he had died while on a state visit to Spain.

Lourenço’s challenge will be to diversify the economy away from oil – as a cushion to future fluctuation in the commodity’s global price.

Source: AFP