"João Lourenço has to show the population that the fight against corruption is worthwhile, so some of the funds he has recovered have to go directly to the economy. He has to create jobs directly with some of the corruption funds," said the professor and researcher, who is a member of the Centre for African Studies at Oxford University.
Thus, in the opinion of Rui Santos Verde, "it is fundamental" that, in the year and a half before the next elections in the country, the President launches "some program in which he will spend some of the money he has recovered from corruption, to guarantee jobs for the people.
As for the fight against corruption, the other political flag of João Lourenço, "has to create its own organs" for this fight, defended the non-resident researcher of the University of Johannesburg.
"Because by fighting by the common means, things are then stopped and don't move forward," he said.
In short, "you have to do exactly the same things you are doing: 'Economy and corruption'. But accelerating in the economy, spending money, and in corruption, creating a path of its own, faster to investigate, judge, and acquit or condemn.
For the academic, Ph.D. in law and humanities and distinguished professor at the Institute of Indian Management-Researcher "when you have a whole state that has been captured by a corrupt system, the common [investigative] means, by themselves, may no longer be, but they have been corrupt and have corrupted.
In Angola, he stressed, we are already seeing the result of this fight with our own means. "So far it has only achieved one conviction, that of Augusto Tomás [former transport minister].
"Otherwise, we have freezes. In one case it's money, which came from the sovereign fund, but in another case it's companies. And there's another problem. Then, if the companies are not managed, they start to degrade and devalue," said Ruis Santos Verde, who is also research director at Cedesa, an entity dedicated to the study and analysis of economic and political affairs in Angola.
On the other hand, João Lourenço "has to recreate Angolan agriculture and industry. And he has been doing that," he said.
In addition, Rui Santos Verde, considers that Angolan banking has been reluctant to grant credit, but may be "a secret weapon that can be used to grant domestic credit" in the near future.
In this way, the president could, in the opinion of the researcher, gain some confidence from a "dissatisfied" population and create the path to victory in the elections, not least because political alternatives to João Lourenço within the MPLA still do not exist, he considered.
"There was the idea, more abroad than in Angola, that Isabel dos Santos [daughter of the former PR José Eduardo dos Santos, now being prosecuted for corruption] was going to launch a great front to return to power. But then Isabel stumbled upon herself," she said.
Now, "there is the idea that Adalberto [Costa, the current leader of UNITA] has strength, but from what I understand, UNITA is already having internal problems," she said.
As to who might return to power in the ruling party, there is no doubt that "it is the saints, who will choose a new face.
In Rui Santos Verde's opinion, the new face could be a "military" or "the current vice-president, Bornito de Sousa, who has been a deleted person is always a chance. Because he is a moderate person, he hasn't participated, he doesn't show that it is a break or a rupture in the process. Easily he can ascend to President".
About the policy followed by João Lourenço, in his first term as President he said it was "completely unexpected".
"So I think he's a man of courage, but now he's in a very difficult labyrinth. And what I don't know is if the courage he had will be enough to reach the end of the labyrinth".
