José Eduardo dos Santos Biography And Net Worth At Time Of Death

Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled Angola, Africa’s second-biggest oil producer for nearly four decades, has died aged 79.

Jose Santos’ death was announced by the Angolan presidency via Facebook on Friday, July 8, 2022.

Jose Santos died in The Barcelona clinic where he was hospitalized in June, more than five years after he left power in May 2017.

Jose Santos was born on 28 August 1942 in what is today the district of Sambizanga in Luanda, to parents Avelino Eduardo dos Santos and Jacinta José Paulino.

He attended primary school in Luanda, and received his secondary education at the Liceu Salvador Correia, today called Mutu ya Kevela.

While in school, dos Santos joined the MPLA, which marked the beginning of his political career.

He fought for the MPLA during the Angolan War of Independence, which became the sole legal party after the country’s independence in 1975 and adopted Marxism-Leninism as its ideology.

He then held several positions including Minister of Foreign Affairs during the rule of the country’s first president, Agostinho Neto.

Following Neto’s death in 1979, dos Santos was elected the country’s new president, inheriting a civil war against Western-backed anti-communist rebels, most notably UNITA, while himself being supported by the Second World.

By 1991, his government agreed with rebels to introduce a multi-party system, while changing the MPLA’s ideology from communism to social democracy.

He was elected president in the 1992 Angolan general election.

After winning a second presidential term in the 2012 election, he retired from the presidency in 2017, and was succeeded by João Lourenço in the 2017 Angolan general election.

José Eduardo dos Santos Net Worth

Under Jose Santos’ tenure in office, Angola became Africa’s second-largest oil producer and the third-largest diamond producer.

Despite the country’s abundant natural resources, most Angolans remained in poverty and at the time of dos Santos’ death in 2022, a few years after he left office, more than half of the more than 30 million Angolans survived on less than US$1.90 a day.

Dos Santos has been widely criticized for superintending over a kleptocracy with vast amounts of wealth being diverted to his family.

His successor, João Lourenço, estimated in 2020 that more than $24 billion was stolen or misappropriated under dos Santos, allegedly through diversion of oil revenue, patronage, and government contracts.

What was Jose Eduardo dos Santos net worth at time of death? At the time of death, Jose Santos had an estimated net worth of $800 million.