Angola leads the way
Angola can show South Africa a thing or two when it comes to holding politicians to account.
The 38-year long presidency of Jose Eduardo dos Santos led to some of his children becoming exceedingly wealthy. His daughter, Isabel, was often described as the “richest woman in Africa.” A large portion of her assets was confiscated and it seems she has by no means finished with corruption trials from her home in exile. Her brother, Jose Filomeno ‘Zenu’ dos Santos, was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for fraud, money laundering and influence peddling. The former president is living in exile in Spain.
Former cabinet ministers in Angola are also not above the law. Former minister of communications, Manuel Rabelais was sentenced to 14 years in prison for a €98 million corruption case. Former transport minister Augusto da Silva Tomas also received a sentence of 14 years for corruption.
Namibia provides another example for us. Bernard Esau, former minister of fisheries and former justice minister Sakeus Shanghala are both in jail awaiting trial on charges of corruption.
The only South African examples that come to mind are fraudster Tony Yengeni who served a brief period in prison before being paroled and elected to high office in the ANC; the Travelgate MPs, who stole money from the people of South Africa, got off with fines and some of them went on to promotion – even into the cabinet; and Schabir Shaik.