BY HENRY MHARA

WARRIORS striker Tino Kadewere has reportedly snubbed what could have been a lucrative move to the English Premier League (EPL) – widely regarded as the best league in the world – after weekend reports suggested that he has decided to stay in France with a move to Olympique Lyonnais imminent.

The 24-year-old former Harare City striker is hot property across Europe after his impressive goal-scoring record this season for Le Havre, where he has netted an impressive 18 goals in 20 games as well as providing four assists to lead the goal-scoring chats in Ligue 2.

Reports suggest that top European teams are jostling for the striker, including EPL teams Tottenham, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Bournemouth and Southampton.

Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt and Turkish giants Galatasaray and Besiktas, as well as Spanish league side Real Valladolid are some of the major clubs that have also reportedly inquired about Kadewere.

Warriors fans, most of them popular with the EPL, were hoping that Kadewere would follow his compatriot Marvellous Nakamba to England by joining one of the sides who had shown interest in him.

Nakamba plays for Aston Villa.

However, the fans will be disappointed to learn that the lanky Highfield-born marksman has decided to remain in France, where he has reportedly agreed personal terms with Olympique Lyonnais, popularly known as Lyon.

Local daily Paris-Normandie reported at the weekend that what is only left is for Lyon and Kadewere’s club Le Havre to agree terms.

The French Ligue 1 side has reportedly tabled €15 million after their initial €10m offer was rebuffed last week.

The new offer, according to the media outlet, would be difficult for the French Ligue 2 side to turn down.

The media outlet reported that the deal could be announced as soon as today.

“At the beginning of this week, there would be a huge transfer that is expected to happen in Le Havre. On Monday (yesterday), or perhaps Tuesday (today), Le Havre and Lyonnais leaders will meet around a table in order to finalise the conditions for the transfer of Tino Kadewere. Even more serious, it will also involve sealing an agreement concerning the immediate departure to OL (Lyon) for the current top scorer in Ligue 2,” reported the outlet.

The newspaper reported that Lyon wanted the player as soon as he signs the contract, while Le Havre want a deal which will allow them to take their star back on loan for the remainder of the season.

Le Havre are fighting for promotion to the Ligue 1 and they fear that losing their star striker would disrupt their season target.

“Kadewere seems to have his mind turned already towards Lyon although he remains grateful to Le Havre. Le Havre have high hopes of a return to Ligue 1 next spring, even going through the play-off route. Without its main striker though, it would be difficult for them. Without his goals, Le Havre would indeed be down on the log standings at the moment, perhaps not even in contention for league promotion,” the report read.

Le Havre are currently sixth on the log standings, just one rung from a promotion play-off position.

“Letting go of the Zimbabwean international would undoubtedly weaken the team, and this could potentially ruin relations between the club management and the coach who has often relied on his precious centre forward and intends to keep him until the end of the season. The supporters will also be naturally unhappy with the decision because they fear the club will not be able to find a suitable replacement.”

Lyon are desperate to sign strikers after injuries to their superstar forward Mephis Depay while striker Moussa Dembele is rumoured to be on his way to the EPL. They have reportedly agreed terms with striker Toko Ekambi, currently with Spanish league side Villarreal and want to wrap up Kadewere’s deal as soon as possible.

The giants, with seven league titles in France, are in the knockout stages of the Champions League where they will face Christiano Ronaldo’s Juventus.

BY TINOTENDA SAMUKANGE

It is early morning on Saturday as dark clouds threatened light showers, and possibly a heavy downpour. Dressed in dirty and torn garments, Charlton Chirenje and his three brothers head for the streets for their daily hustle.

They are in the business of collecting empty plastic bottles and disposed leftovers from dumping sites in some of Harare’s suburbs. They use some of the garbage to brew an illegal traditional distilled beverage called kachasu, which they sell in their neighbourhood of Dzivarasekwa and other surrounding suburbs to imbibers who can no longer afford formally-brewed brands.

Kachasu is an illegal traditional beverage common in Zambia, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malawi where it is consumed mainly in rural parts and poor urban suburbs.

It is normally brewed from maize, though finger millet and various fruits like banana peels can also be used. The process involves adding brewers’ yeast together with the carbohydrate sources such as maize husks to warm water and heating the mixture for a few minutes and then distilling it after it has fully fermented.

Chirenje told NewsDay that they dress like vagrants or insane people to attract public empathy for food or clothes and also to disguise their identity from family and friends as they go about their daily business.

As he scouts for empty plastic bottles something unusual happens, he finds a sealed black plastic bag.

It turns out to be a disposed 2kg chicken that was putrid, probably thrown away because of the incessant power cuts that have become a daily routine in Zimbabwe.

The quartet wastes no time to set the fire at the centre of the dumping site in Kuwadzana Extension. They appeared well-equipped with their cooking utensils — a pot, a bottle of water and salt ready to make their main meal of the day.

When conducting their daily hustle, the Chirenjes cannot afford a meal or anything decent to put in their stomachs. So throughout the day, they have to make do with whatever discarded leftovers they may come across in either bins or dumping sites as long as its palatable.

“If we get selective of what to eat, it means we have to spend the whole day without eating anything as food has become very expensive. We are trying to make ends meet so that we can at least feed our families,” Charlton said.

The World Food Programme on New Year’s eve said it plans to feed at least four million of Zimbabwe’s estimated eight million hungry people this year, but said the international community has not raised the money yet.

“We wake up around 3am, every Saturday because we know council normally collects refuse on this day so most households put their bins outside the gates and it is this time that we move around searching for empty plastic bottles and leftovers. So far we have covered parts of Kuwadzana and probably by midday we might be heading towards Whitehouse and Whitecliff areas” Charlton said.

With the prevailing harsh economic situation and high unemployment rate most youths, men, women and children are left with no option, but to engage in the informal sector for survival no matter how dangerous or hazardous it may be.

The quartet seemed unconcerned that they were consuming contaminated food that could have long-term effects on their health, but rather believe that God was on their side and would continue to protect them as long as they are still alive.

“We have survived similar hard times before, God is for the poor and he will not leave us to starve. You don’t know what our friends are eating, some are eating dogs as we speak. We are so lucky we picked a chicken. It just needs proper boiling so that we kill all the germs.”

“I have a wife and five children. My eldest son is 22 years old, he works as a car park guard in Dzivarasekwa Extension earning about $20 per day. My wife also collects bottles with us, but today we left her as she is the one running the brewery and sales while we are moving in search of more bottles” Charlton added.

The USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Network System, or Fewsnet in December said scorched Zimbabwe looks set to continue being barked into 2020 in the wake of another devastating drought. And if that happens it will leave the poverty-stricken Zimbabweans scratching for food until at least March 2021, and with about 90% adults outside formal work, most people face poverty.

“We have to keep moving and searching for more bottles despite the threatening rains. This year doesn’t look good in every aspect. We couldn’t afford maize seed, but we tried mapfunde (sorghum) hopefully by the beginning of February we can also gamble with sweet potatoes” Charlton said.

The elder Chirenje brother added: “We brew about 60 litres of kachasu per day and sell an average of 20 litres per day. A pint of kachasu is 500ml. We sell it for $10 each, that means we get about $400 in cash per day. We then convert that money into EcoCash at a premium of 30% and we get about $520.

“Since we stay at the same compound, we cook in one pot and we share everything we eat. But on better days, we can convert our cash into EcoCash so that each person can get at least $130 as pocket money for their personal use” he said.

To people who have lost hope in government, Charlton and his brothers seem neither bothered nor affected by the current political tussle.

According to Fewsnet’s November report, “the persisting poor macro-economic environment continues to impact livelihoods and remains a key driver of the near-record levels of rural and urban food insecurity. The high parallel market exchange rates for foreign currency still largely influence the pricing of most goods and services”.

BY EVERSON MUSHAVA

CHURCHES have vowed to pressure President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration to come up with strict measures to ensure that all millers who get grain under the government maize subsidy programme sell mealie-meal at subsidised prices.

Speaking to NewsDay after the national executive meeting of the Zimbabwe Amalgamated Churches Council (Zacc), a grouping of indigenous churches, held in Harare on Thursday last week, patron of the grouping Jimayi Muduvuri said the churches had resolved to push Mnangagwa to ensure that subsidised commodities remain affordable.

The call comes at a time maize meal is in short supply and mostly found on the black market.

“This year, as churches, through our branch of consumer power, we will work tirelessly to make sure that government acts to ensure that the prices of commodities from companies that are supported by government remain low,” Muduvuri said.

“Right now, mealie-meal is in short supply and can only be found on the black market highly priced yet some millers are getting subsidised maize. This should come to an end.”

Last month, the government scrapped maize subsidies, but reintroduced them after a public outcry over high prices. To control the prices, government introduced a roller meal subsidy programme that required millers to be registered with the Industry and Commerce ministry.

However, the Grain Millers’ Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ), a voluntary business organisation representing the interests of millers, raised the red flag after 60 of its members were denied registration, claiming the registration process was clandestinely done to favour big companies, leaving small-scale millers in the cold.

This, GMAZ said, was creating an artificial shortage of the staple food. Muduvuri said the wave of price hikes, especially on the staple food was synonymous with exposing the population to a new wave of economic sanctions.

“We are crying against the Western-imposed sanctions on the country, but the prices by profiteering businesses in Zimbabwe are a form of sanctions on the population,” he said.

Akon is set to build his own city, which is going to be known as Akon City. Reports are that this city will be powered by cryptocurrency.

At first, there were so many doubts concerning this issue but the African superstar confirmed this himself on his Twitter account. In the tweet, he talked about how agreements between him and the country of Senegal had actually been finalised. This means that Akon City is coming to life as he started on real money online casinos. In the Twitter post, he went on to say that he was looking forward to hosting people there in the future.

Back in 2018, CNN reported that Akon’s Akon City was going to be built on a piece of land that was 2,000 acres big. The CNN article also noted that the piece of land was going to come from Macky Sall, who is the president of Senegal, as a gift.

Back then, it was reported that Akon City was going to be just five minutes away from the country’s international airport. However, at the moment, it is still to be confirmed if the piece of land that Akon was gifted is the confirmed site for the star’s city.

Akon City to be Cryptocurrency Powered

It came as a surprise to a lot of people that the city was going to be powered by cryptocurrency only. Another huge surprise was the fact that it wasn’t any of the known cryptocurrencies that is going to be used in Akon City. Instead, Akoin is the cryptocurrency that will be used there. If you are wondering what this is, let us explain. Akoin is Akon’s own cryptocurrency. In 2018, it was reported that all transactions in Akon City are going to be done using Akoin. So far, it’s really hard to gauge what Akon’s cryptocurrency is worth as there hasn’t been any paper work yet.

At the moment, it seems all we can do is play our favourite best payout casino online games and see how things pan out.

OPPOSITION MDC leader Nelson Chamisa yesterday said his planned party rally scheduled for tomorrow at Mbare’s Stodart Hall would go ahead after being verbally cleared by the police.

BY EVERSON MUSHAVA/MOSES MATENGA

The rally was initially scheduled for Wednesday last week at Mai Musodzi Hall, but police declined to clear the event, claiming it had the potential of disrupting the opening of schools’ first term on Tuesday January 14.

The party yesterday said it was mobilising its members to attend the event in their thousands.

Chamisa wants to use the occasion to spell out the MDC’s course of action for 2020 after most of their previous programmes were blocked by State security agencies.

“The address is on at 10am in Mbare, Stodart Hall,” Chamisa said in an interview with NewsDay.

“The address will be speaking to a programme of action for the nation: The big questions the nation is facing. It’s an agenda-setting address.”

MDC Harare provincial chairperson Wellington Chikombo confirmed that they had received verbal police clearance for the rally, which comes a few days after the law enforcement agents raided the opposition party’s headquarters claiming they were looking for machetes and other subversive materials.

“The police have cleared our presidential Sona (State of the nation address) to be addressed by none other than the people’s president,” he said.

MDC national organising secretary Amos Chibaya confirmed that police had verbally given them the greenlight and he was set to get the clearance letter today.

Chamisa rubbished government claims that he wanted to use the event to incite mass uprisings.

“They say we want to incite violence. If we want to incite violence, can we do that by an address? The biggest dilemma we have is an opposition that is in government and a government that is in opposition. Zanu PF has an opposing mentality, always opposing people’s freedom because it does not have the mandate of the people,” he said .

The youthful opposition leader has refused to recognise President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s leadership, accusing him of rigging the 2018 elections.

Several meetings by the opposition leader have, of late, been quashed by police and sometimes the army stepping in to violently disperse crowds.

When last week the police raided the Morgan Tsvangirai House searching for subversive materials, they accused the opposition of sponsoring a reign of terror through machete-wielding artisanal miners, popularly known as MaShurugwi, who are currently raiding mining communities across the country.

But Chamisa yesterday insinuated that “these are acts of command violence were directed from the top,” and challenged Mnangagwa to stop the gangsters before they become a national security threat.

“What is bizarre is that Mnangagwa has taken a very outrageous disposition, hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing and do nothing while the mabhemba menace continues,” Chamisa said.

“The machete or mabhemba movement is a real threat to national security and economic stability. The country’s economic recovery, without a good image of our country, will be difficult.”

He said the police raid on his party headquarters proved that Mnangagwa’s government has mastered the Selous Scout strategy of labelling, blaming and condemning to justify a crackdown on innocent people.

“Cowards are always afraid and violent. The guilty are afraid and when you confiscate your neighbour’s goat, you hardly sleep well. You know no peace. The slightest of sounds, you think that you are under siege. Even the sound of a neighbour coming to help becomes intimidating,” he said.

“They are now uncomfortable because they know what they did. How can you look for machetes at the party offices? We don’t have any mines. They are actually using tactics that even (Ian) Smith did not use on them,” Chamisa added.
But Information deputy minister Energy Mutodi denied claims that government was reluctant to rein in the marauding machete gangs.

“There is no silence. Police have arrested in excess of a thousand of them and more are being hunted down,” Mutodi said.

“All those who have committed crimes in mining areas are being brought to book and so far, a good number has been jailed. President Mnangagwa has clearly called for peace in the mining sector, accepting that the artisanal miners are important for our gold production, but also insisting that they should conduct their business under the ambit of the law.”

ZANU PF leaders in Mazowe on Saturday confronted the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Support Unit over some rogue officers who were illegally mining and issuing travel passes to residents staying at Jumbo Mine while the blitz against illegal gold miners is still ongoing.

BY SIMBARASHE SITHOLE

Zanu PF Mazowe district chairperson Tichaona Chawana and provincial member Tracy Mudimu led a team of disgruntled party members who stormed the police station demanding audience with acting officer commanding Support Unit, Assistant Commissioner Bazibi Dube.

Dube had a three-hour closed-door meeting with the ruling party team, explaining to them the objectives of the operation.

“As Zanu PF leadership, we are worried about your rogue police officers who are illegally mining in the name of your operation and the issue of travel passes is worrisome. What do we need passes for when we have national identity cards?” Chawana questioned Dube.

The top cop said travel passes were a screening measure and rogue officers should be named so they are dealt with.

“The issue of machete gangs has become a national issue which has to be dealt with immediately and harshly, so as the ZRP, we should know who are the residents of Jumbo Mine and we came up with the issue of passes, which is my strategy to screen people and flash out machete gangs as these are people from outside Jumbo,” Dube said.

“On the issue of rogue police officers, I will be the happiest man if you report them like what you are doing now because as you know last week, we managed to arrest five police officers who were illegally mining.

“We do not want bad apples within the system and a lot of bad things are being done in my name. I will tell you that I have a reaction team of over 1 000 officers here, whom I cannot keep a close eye on, but you are there to help me by reporting such cases so that we bring sanity at the mine.”

The Zanu PF leaders also bemoaned the heavy police crackdown, saying they were supposed to give notice of the blitz before descending on them.

“Why did you just pounce on us without notifying us? Instead, you were supposed to notify us in time so that we help you with screening methods because we own these people and we know who is who here,” Chawana charged.

Dube then calmly responded: “It was not possible for us to notify anyone as the situation here was getting out of hand. We wanted to catch anyone involved in the rot unawares regardless of social status, rank or political influence and we did achieve that. So I say to you it was not possible.”

Last week, 77 illegal gold miners, rounded up from Mazowe and Shamva, were jailed to two years each after their case was fast-tracked at the Bindura Magistrates Court.

HARARE businessman Alex Mashamhanda says the political torture he endured at the hands of a Zanu PF-linked militia, Chipangano, and some top Zanu PF officials, during the formative stages of his business empire seven years ago has made him stronger.

BY MOSES MATENGA

Since 2012, Mashamhanda was engaged in running battles with ruling party activists, who claimed the businessman, trading as Mashwede, was aligned to the MDC, a tag that was used to bar him from operating a fuel station and a fast-food outlet in Mbare.

“In business, every challenge we met as an organisation, by the time it was all over, we ended up being a lot stronger than what we were before meeting that challenge. When you think it’s the end of the world, probably sometimes it is the beginning of opportunities. The whole idea is don’t give up,” he said.

“When you are literally shedding tears, you end up rejoicing because you learn so much, you get to know people who will help you, whom you will not have known if you had not encountered the challenges because you had no reason to approach them. It makes you seek help, which you could not have looked for if you had no challenges. That help helps you to build new relationships.”

Mashamhanda said he was given all sorts of excuses by government then, all in an effort to block his $1,2 million investment.

“I was told they wanted to extend Matapi Police Station, then they wanted to build flats for police officers and then they said some Lebanese businesspeople were interested in some project there; all sorts of excuses,” he said.
Seven years down the line, Mashamhanda says he is still standing and the service station is now operating, while Chipangano, a creation of Zanu PF factional fights, has died its own natural death.

As part of his company’s corporate social responsibility, Mashamhanda is now assisting council clear and clean a stream close to his business premises.

He is also clearing sewer that was causing a health hazard to residents in the nearby suburbs.

Mashamhanda has also installed traffic lights worth US$9 500 at a road intersection close to the Mashwede Village along High Glen Road.

The joint venture has generated employment to more than 155 people from the surrounding suburbs of Highfield, Glen Norah, Glen View, Budiriro and Mufakose.

Harare town clerk Hosea Chisango said the local authority was pleased to have businesspeople assisting in communities.

“We are open for partnerships and for all sorts of collaborations and we appreciate businesspeople within the city who come up with such initiatives,” Chisango said.

Leaked documents reveal how Africa’s richest woman made her fortune through exploiting her own country, and corruption.

Isabel dos Santos got access to lucrative deals involving land, oil, diamonds and telecoms when her father was president of Angola, a southern African country rich in natural resources.

BBC

The documents show how she and her husband were allowed to buy valuable state assets in a series of suspicious deals.

Ms Dos Santos says the allegations against her are entirely false and that there is a politically motivated witch-hunt by the Angolan government.

The former president’s daughter has made the UK her home and owns expensive properties in central London.

She is already under criminal investigation by the authorities in Angola for corruption and her assets in the country have been frozen.

Now BBC Panorama has been given access to more than 700,000 leaked documents about the billionaire’s business empire.

Most were obtained by the Platform to Protect Whistle-blowers in Africa and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

They’ve been investigated by 37 media organisations including the Guardian and Portugal’s Expresso newspaper.

Andrew Feinstein, the head of Corruption Watch, says the documents show how Ms Dos Santos exploited her country at the expense of ordinary Angolans.

“Every time she appears on the cover of some glossy magazine somewhere in the world, every time that she hosts one of her glamorous parties in the south of France, she is doing so by trampling on the aspirations of the citizens of Angola.”

The ICIJ have called the documents the Luanda Leaks.

The oil connection

One of the most suspicious deals was run from London through a UK subsidiary of the Angolan state oil company Sonangol.

Ms Dos Santos had been put in charge of the struggling Sonangol in 2016, thanks to a presidential decree from her father Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who kept a tight grip on his country for the 38 years he was in power.

But when he retired as president in September 2017 her position was soon under threat, even though his hand-picked successor came from the same party. Ms Dos Santos was sacked two months later.

Many Angolans have been surprised at the way that President João Lourenço has gone after the business interests of his predecessor’s family.

She says she has no financial interest in Matter, but the leaked documents reveal it was run by her business manager and owned by a friend.

Panorama understands that Matter sent more than 50 invoices to Sonangol in London on the day that she was fired.

Ms Dos Santos appears to have approved payments to her friend’s company after she was sacked.

Although some consultancy work had been carried out by Matter, there’s very little detail on the invoices to justify such large bills.

One asks for €472,196 for unspecified expenses – another asks for $928,517 for unspecified legal services.

Two of the invoices – each for €676,339.97 – are for exactly the same work on the same date and Ms Dos Santos signed them both off anyway.

“Regarding the invoices related with expenses, it is common for consultancy companies to add expenses to invoices as a general item. This is often due to those expenses involving large amounts of paperwork… Matter can produce documentary evidence to confirm all expenses incurred.”

Ms Dos Santos’s lawyers said her actions with regard to the Matter payments were entirely lawful and that she had not authorised payments after she had been dismissed from Sonangol.

They said: “All invoices paid were in relation to services contracted and agreed between the two parties, under a contract that was approved with the full knowledge and approval of the Sonangol Board of Directors.”

Media captionIsabel dos Santos: “I regret that Angola has chosen this path”
The ICIJ and Panorama have also uncovered new details about the business deals that made Ms Dos Santos rich.

Much of her fortune is based on her ownership of a stake in the Portuguese energy company Galp, which one of her companies bought from Sonangol in 2006.

The documents show it only had to pay 15% of the price upfront and that the remaining €63m ($70m) was turned into a low-interest loan from Sonangol.

Under the generous terms of the loan, her debt to the Angolan people didn’t have to be repaid for 11 years.

Her stake in Galp is now worth more than €750m.

Ms Dos Santos’s company did offer to repay the Sonangol loan in 2017.

The repayment offer should have been rejected because it didn’t include almost €9m of interest owing.

Image caption
Bank orders signed by Isabel dos Santos transferred almost $58m out of the Angolan state oil company
But Ms Dos Santos was in charge of Sonangol at the time and she accepted the money as full payment of her own debt.

She was fired six days later and the payment was returned by the new Sonangol management.

Ms Dos Santos says she initiated the purchase of the stake in Galp, and that Sonangol made money from the deal as well.

“There’s absolutely no wrongdoing in any of those transactions. This investment is the investment that in history has generated the most benefit for the national oil company and all the contracts that were drafted are perfectly legal contracts, there are no wrongdoings.”

Her lawyers say the repayment offer in 2017 covered what Sonangol had indicated was owed.

The diamond connection
It’s a similar story in the diamond industry.

Ms Dos Santos’s husband, Sindika Dokolo, signed a one-sided agreement in 2012 with Angolan state diamond company Sodiam.

They were supposed to be 50-50 partners in a deal to buy a stake in the Swiss luxury jeweller De Grisogono.

But it was funded by the state company. The documents show that 18 months after the deal, Sodiam had put $79m into the partnership, while Mr Dokolo had only invested $4m. Sodiam also awarded him a €5m success fee for brokering the deal, so he didn’t have to use any of his own money.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Isabel dos Santos and her husband Sindika Dokolo can often be seen at film premieres and festivals with the world’s stars
The diamond deal gets even worse for the Angolan people.

The documents reveal how Sodiam borrowed all the cash from a private bank in which Ms Dos Santos is the biggest shareholder.

Sodiam has to pay 9% interest and the loan was guaranteed by a presidential decree from her father, so Ms Dos Santos’s bank cannot lose out.

Bravo da Rosa, the new chief executive of Sodiam, told Panorama that the Angolan people hadn’t got a single dollar back from the deal: “In the end, when we have finished paying back this loan, Sodiam will have lost more than $200m.”

The former president also gave Ms Dos Santos’s husband the right to buy some of Angola’s raw diamonds.

Who is Isabel dos Santos?
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Eldest daughter of ex-President Jose Eduardo dos Santos
Married to Congolese art collector and businessman Sindika Dokolo
Educated in UK, where she currently lives
Reported to be Africa’s richest woman, with a fortune of some $2bn
Has stakes in oil and mobile phone companies and banks, mostly in Angola and Portugal
Source: Forbes magazine and others

Read more: Africa’s richest woman eyes Angolan presidency

The Angolan government says the diamonds were sold at a knockdown price and sources have told Panorama that almost $1bn may have been lost.

Ms Dos Santos told the BBC she couldn’t comment because she was not a shareholder of De Grisogono.

But the leaked documents show that she is described as a shareholder of De Grisogono by her own financial advisers.

Mr Dokolo did put in some money later. His lawyers say he invested $115m and that the takeover of De Grisogono was his idea. They say his company paid above the market rate for the raw diamonds.

The land connection

The leaked documents also reveal how Ms Dos Santos bought land from the state in September 2017. Once again she only had to pay a small up-front fee.

Her company bought a square kilometre of prime beachfront land in the capital Luanda with the help of presidential decrees signed by her father.

Panorama traced some of the ordinary Angolans who were evicted to make way for the Futungo development.

Media captionResident describes life next to an open sewer in Angola
They’ve been moved from the Luandan seafront to an isolated housing development 30 miles (50km) from the capital.

Teresa Vissapa lost her business to Ms Dos Santos’ development and is now struggling to bring up her seven children.

She said: “I only ask God to make her think a little more about our situation. Maybe she doesn’t even know it, but we are suffering.”

Ms Dos Santos declined to comment on the Futungo development.

But it was not the only land deal involving Ms Dos Santos that displaced the local population.

About 500 families were evicted from another stretch of the Luandan seafront after Isabel dos Santos got involved in another major redevelopment project.

The families are now living in desperate conditions next to an open sewer. Some of their shacks are flooded with sewage whenever the tide rises.

Ms Dos Santos says there weren’t any evictions linked to her project and that her companies were never paid because the development was cancelled.

The telecoms connection
The billionaire has also made big profits from the telecoms industry in Angola.

She acquired a 25% stake in the country’s biggest mobile phone provider, Unitel. It was granted a telecoms licence by her father in 1999 and she bought her stake the following year from a high ranking government official.

Unitel has already paid her $1bn in dividends and her stake is worth another $1bn. But that’s not the only way she got cash from the private company.

She arranged for Unitel to lend €350m to a new company she set up, called Unitel International Holdings.

The leaked documents show Isabel dos Santos signed off on loans from Unitel as both the borrower and the lender
The company name was misleading because it wasn’t connected to Unitel and Ms Dos Santos was the owner.

The documents show Ms Dos Santos signed off on the loans as both lender and borrower, which is a blatant conflict of interest.

Ms Dos Santos denied that the loans were corrupt. She said: “This loan had both directors’ approval and shareholders’ approval, and it’s a loan that will generate, and has generated, benefit for Unitel.”

Her lawyers say the loans protected Unitel from currency fluctuations.

Most of the companies involved in the dodgy deals were overseen by accountants working for the financial services company, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC). It’s made millions providing auditing, consultancy and tax advice to her companies.

But PWC has terminated its relationship with the billionaire and her family, after Panorama questioned the way the company had assisted Ms Dos Santos in the deals that had made her rich.

PWC says it is holding an inquiry into the “very serious and concerning allegations”.

“PWC, if not facilitating the corruption, are providing a veneer of respectability that makes what’s happening acceptable or more acceptable than it might otherwise be.

“So if I was at PWC I’d be conducting a pretty thorough audit of what decisions were made, and in hindsight actually: ‘Did we make the wrong decision to accept this business and should we have reported what we had been presented with?’”

PWC says it strives to maintain the highest professional standards and has set expectations for consistent ethical behaviour across its global network.

“In response to the very serious and concerning allegations that have been raised, we immediately initiated an investigation and are working to thoroughly evaluate the facts and conclude our inquiry.

“We will not hesitate to take appropriate actions to ensure that we always stand for the very highest standards of behaviour, wherever we operate in the world.”