Isabel dos Santos. Image: Nuno Coimbra
A year after Angolan authorities cracked down on her multibillion-dollar business empire, Africa’s once-richest woman is watching it crumble.
From self-imposed exile in Dubai, Isabel dos Santos has been fighting a legal battle against Angola’s government as court orders roil her companies. In Luanda, shelves at the Candando supermarket stores are more than half empty. A beer factory south of the capital is running at 30% of its production capacity. Operations at the country’s biggest cement maker have also slowed.
All of the businesses are controlled by Dos Santos, who Angolan prosecutors accuse of causing more than US$5-billion of losses to the southwest African nation’s economy during her father’s 38-year rule. He stepped down in 2017, making way for longtime ally Joao Lourenco. Within months, Lourenco turned on the family, firing Isabel as chairwoman of state oil company Sonangol. Two years later, authorities froze her domestic assets.