Angola's president has said ties with its former colonial ruler, Portugal, are "not well."
Angola’s leader, José Eduardo dos Santos, has stated the current political climate was not conducive to building a strategic relationship with Portugal.
His current feeling is that the west still considers that "a rich African man is corrupt" amid tensions over Lisbon's investigation of certain unnamed Angolan officials.
Portugal's foreign minister has apologised for the inquiries but Portuguese opposition parties have called for Rui Machete to resign, despite his having the confidence and backing of Portugal's Prime Minster, Pedro Passos Coelho.
However, Angola's Minister for External Relations has denied dos Santos’s comments are linked to Portugal’s investigation, commenting to the BBC that “We don't intervene in any Portuguese political issues," adding a barely veiled threat that, "We have right now 250,000 Portuguese living in Angola, doing businesses. And none of them has ever been prosecuted or investigated whatsoever. I think that's the balance that you need."
President dos Santos runs a country awash with oil money, most of it appearing to benefit an elite ruling class rather than ordinary Angolans who struggle by on a average of €2 a day.
Angola's riches have enabled a recent shopping spree as it buys up stakes in Portuguese listed companies.
An Angolan businesswoman, daughter of the Angolan President, owns stakes in Portugal’s top 20 companies valued at more than €2.3 billion. Her stakes in Galp, Zon and BPI represent more than 4.6% of the total value of the top 20 listed companies on the Portuguese stock market.
Portugal is among the "biggest laundries of money stolen from Angola,” according to Angolan lawyer David Mendes speaking in Lisbon in May this year.
Mendes claims that Portugal is condoning corruption in Angola by accepting investments and urges the Portuguese state to investigate and return these funds to the Angolan people.
"One can easily reach the conclusion that Portugal has an interest in the group that sustains the corruption in Angola and continues to do so because almost 40 million US dollars comes into the country (Portugal) every week,” said Mendes.
Angola and Portugal are major trading partners, with Angola’s economy continuing to grow as Portugal’s bounces along the bottom of the economic cycle.
Rui Machete’s support for this regime appears to be based on money alone, and the investigation into corrupt Angolan officials must continue to take the moral high ground or Portugal will become tainted further with Angola’s oil money.
