Dr Congo: Sindika Dokolo, husband of Isabel dos Santos, died

Married under the gold of the presidential palace of Luanda in 2002 to Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of the former Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos, in power from 1979 to 2017, the Congolese businessman and patron Sindika Dokolo died this Thursday, October 29 following a scuba diving accident in Dubai. The news was confirmed by several members of his entourage according to RFI and Jeune Afrique.

Congolese officials then took over, including Michée Mulumba from President Félix Tshisekedi’s office, who formalized the information. “It was during a scuba dive that you left for eternity. A habitual activity that tore you from your fight, from your loved ones… Rest in peace, dear @SindikaDokolo ! »Writes the latter on Twitter, one of the networks on which Sindika Dokolo was very present, accustomed to clashes.

Golden youth

The elegant 40-year-old, known for his investments and the thousands of works in his collection of African art, was born in 1972 to a Danish mother, Hanne Kruse, who took him to visit all the museums in Europe, and to a flourishing businessman under Mobutu Sese Seko’s regime, Augustin Dokolo Sanu, who fell out of favor before the overthrow of the old marshal in 1997. “My father was the first Congolese to create a bank, the Banque de Kinshasa. We still have a number of strategic assets across the country, ”Sindika Dokolo liked to say.

The ambitious and uninhibited couple he formed with Isabel dos Santos

After a golden youth between Europe where he attended the Parisian lycée Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague and Africa, then exile during the two civil wars in the former Zaire (1997-2003), the young man half-dandy, half-student hipster with his Buddy Holly eyeglass frames manages to be accepted into the dos Santos clan when he marries Isabel. A year earlier, at age 29, he inherited a great fortune from his father. But these two did well: from the same generation, they are mixed race, trained in Europe, ambitious and uninhibited. They met in 1999 at Miami Beach in Luanda, haunt of the Angolan jet set and Isabel’s first investment.

Born to a Russian mother who was a chess champion, at the time of her father’s golden wedding to the Soviet camp, Isabel dos Santos was then the richest woman in Africa according to the magazine. Forbes.

A regular at the Cannes Film Festival, the private beaches of Saint-Tropez and the palaces of London, the “first couple of African oligarchs” as the Swiss newspaper calls it Time grew rich in telephony, diamond mines, banking, real estate …

And oil, when Isabel dos Santos was propelled in 2016 at the head of the national company Sonangol “Nepotism”, denounce her detractors. In Angola, Sindika Dokolo has one of the largest diamond mines and the “Iron Palace”, the largest performance hall in Luanda.

In Europe, the couple would be considered by the banks as “politically exposed personalities”, in other words who present a risk of “corruption”, according to a recent investigation by the newspaper. Time. Response from Dokolo: “I do not accept that we rich Africans have to apologize or justify ourselves. “And to add:” I prefer that the wealth of the continent go to a corrupt black rather than a neo-colonialist white. ”

In his country of origin, Dokolo was convicted in a real estate case which prevents him from returning to the DRC. While denying wanting to be in politics, he launched the citizen movement Les Congolais Upright against a third term of Joseph Kabila, and also to hope to see the Congolese engage in politics not to leave the field open to politicians.

The start of trouble with the Luanda Leaks

The start of trouble? Not really, it was from his adopted country that the tide turned. The former president’s daughter and her businessman husband were then accused by the courts and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) of having looted the Angolan coffers to feed their private affairs. According to the Angolan general prosecutor’s office in charge of the case, these embezzlements have been evaluated by the government of Luanda at five billion dollars.

In December, a civil judge in Luanda ordered the freezing of bank accounts and assets of Isabel dos Santos and Sindika Dokolo, in a host of Angolan companies. A month later, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published an investigation, the “Luanda Leaks”, which accuses them on the basis of pirated documents of having “siphoned off the country’s coffers”.

In the process, the Portuguese justice had in turn frozen the accounts and some of their assets in Portugal, where they invested in banking and telephony.

Dutch authorities also froze the assets of a company controlled by Sindika Dokolo last month. Once again, investigators suspect the couple of embezzling tens of millions of euros of public money.

A fight for African art hailed everywhere

Beyond these corruption cases, Sindika Dokolo leaves behind a fight. The one for the defense of African art. Like his father, known to be a great collector of African art, Sindika has become one of his most generous patrons. In recent years, he was one of the great activists for the repatriation of African works and objects of art looted by major European and American museums. “This hunt for lost objects has already enabled him to return twenty works to the Dundo museum in the north of Angola, his adopted country”, we learn from the newspaper Release who had met him in 2019.

On social networks, especially Twitter, the emotion is strong. “I am appalled by the sudden death of our brother Sindika Dokolo. He led the fight for the dignity of the Congolese people with us. I remember him as an alert, lively and hopeful activist. Our prayers of comfort go to his family and loved ones, ”testifies the opponent Martin Fayulu.

” Tribute to #SindikaDokolo for its contribution to the fight for the freedom and dignity of the Congolese people, and for the safeguard of African identity and cultural heritage. Our thoughts are with his wife @isabelaangola, to their families & relatives, and to @LeCongoDebout », Publishes the Lucha movement.

Many Internet users salute the memory of an intelligent man, tireless defender of Africa. “He was still young, he still had a good life ahead of him. An ambitious and intelligent man, a model for Congolese youth. The Democratic Republic of the Congo loses a worthy son. A thought for his family, ”writes Gael Bussa, deputy.