Luanda, Angola's Capital

Last July, I was summoned by the Angolan Attorney General on 11 criminal complaints brought against me by seven generals, after I exposed their links to systematic human rights abuses and corruption involving their enterprises in the private security and the diamond sectors.

While I was under interrogation, a group of youngsters gathered in the square in front of the National Directorate for Investigations and Penal Action (DNIAP) in Luanda, to express their solidarity and encourage me. Among them, there was a 17-year-old fellow by the name of Manuel Chivonde Nito Alves. It was the first time I met him, though previously I had admired his courage as an anti-regime protester.

I joked with Nito Alves by calling him a troublemaker, and reproached him for exposing himself unnecessarily. He had been experiencing political persecution, brief arrests and beatings since the age of 15. For his views and streetwise initiatives for freedom of expression against authoritarian rule and corruption, he had been a target of the state security apparatus.

Today, I am here to receive this award in the name of Manuel Nito Alves, to whom I dedicate this honor. He has been in jail for the past two months charged with "outrage" against the President. Angolan legislation that came into force in 2010 establishes such an "outrage", as a crime against state security. Nito Alves is suspected of attempting to print 20 T-shirts with a slogan calling President José Eduardo dos Santos a "Disgusting Dictator." A minor is being treated as a terrorist, because of 20 T-shirts!

Last month, Angolans faced three landmark events that encapsulated the state of governance in the country, and which prove that President Dos Santos is, indeed, a corrupt dictator. First, in his State of the Nation address, President dos Santos spoke in favor of the primitive accumulation of capital in Angola, and in Africa in general, to ward off any criticisms of corruption, and justify the wealth of his family and cronies.

Secondly, for the first time in its history, the government submitted the 2011 State's General Account to parliament for approval. This procedure was showcased as another step towards good governance and transparency. However, the President, as head of the government, failed to submit reports for more than 70 percent of the expenditures of the 2011 state budget.

Moreover, as the third interconnected event, the Constitutional Court ruled as unconstitutional the parliament's oversight of the government, except for passing laws, and the state budgets. According to ruling nº 319/2013 "the Constitution does not grant the National Assembly the power to raise questions and inquire into the acts of government, nor does it have the right attributions to call upon the ministers, ask them questions or hold hearings, because in Angola the ministers of State, ministers and governors discharge their duties as defined by the head of the executive, who is the President of the Republic."

Thus, the Constitutional Court ruled that "to have the power to make demands upon members of the government would be the same as having the power to make demands upon the President of the Republic, who is the head of the executive, which is constitutionally unacceptable."

I am here today because of my work in exposing corruption. I have always based my standards on the Angolan legislation that exists supposedly to ensure good governance and probity.

The above mentioned events are not a surprise but they are a pattern of institutionalized impunity. Elections, held in 2012, and the judicial system have been used only to provide a veneer of legitimacy to a kleptocratic regime that sees no end in plundering its own country, and has no regard for the future of its citizens.

I have engaged in raising public awareness on the existing anti-corruption legislation. Endemic corruption has become the main institution in the country. It is now the badge of honor for the ruling elite, and the pursuit for those aspiring to a better life. Yet, I strongly believe that it is possible to change the public mindset, and to make corruption what it really is -- a crime under Angolan legislation that must be dealt with as such.

This is why I have lodged a number of criminal complaints against senior government officials and generals whom I have exposed as using public office to advance their private interests and their personal enrichment, worth several billions of dollars. In response, the Office of the Attorney General has shelved such complaints on the grounds that those public officials, on duty, have the right, as any citizens, to legally own private companies that engage in businessess with the state, from oil, diamonds to public contracts, as long as they do not directly manage their private affairs.

In a recent investigation I co-authored for Forbes, I disclosed evidence on how President Dos Santos used his office to issue decrees that enable his daughter Isabel dos Santos to build a US $3 billion business empire through the illicit transfer of state assets, shares and funds.

At the moment, I am investigating how a state-owned diamond company, Sodiam, which holds exclusive rights to commercialize the industrial production of Angolan diamonds, has a secret joint-venture in Malta with President Dos Santos' Congolese-Danish son-in-law, Sindika Dokolo. In 2012, this joint-venture, Victoria Holding Limited, in which each party holds 50 percent of the shares, bought 72.5 percent of the shares of Swiss jewelry maker De Grisogono.

But through the documents I have accessed, a Mr. Fawaz Gruosi, formerly the owner of De Grisogono, received in exchange 20.8 percent shares in Victoria Holding Limited. In essence, once again there is no record that the presidential family paid a cent to have such shares, and be in control of half of the Angolan diamonds marketed through this secret company. Furthermore, because it is secret, this Victoria Holding Limited does not turn up in the national accounting system, as an investment of the Angolan state.

Through this deal, diamonds worth hundreds of millions of dollars may now be siphoned from the Angolan treasury, on a regular basis, through a venerable jewelry maker that caters for Hollywood celebrities.

It is at this juncture that foreign investors, international companies and governments eager to advance their business interests in the country or to attract Angolan money, have become the support mechanisms of corruption in Angola, alongside repression.

To succeed in Angola, foreign investors must associate themselves, through joint-ventures, with the presidential family, relevant government officials and generals, or those nominated by the powers that be.

Such joint-ventures, once involving the State, violate the anti-corruption legislation, and can only be maintained due to the impunity enjoyed by the regime. Western multinationals and governments, and China, in particular, therefore find it in their interests to protect such nefarious alliances, in which the only losers are the Angolan people.

Much of the Angolan state budget is being spent on repression of the people, but corruption is undermining the very foundations of the regime too. For the 2013 fiscal year that just ended, President Dos Santos had allocated US $13.1 billion in defense and security appropriations. In spite of all these resources, to date, the government is unable to provide basic food rations, uniforms, boots and basic living conditions for the military, the police and other agents of repression. This is because the generals and the President's cronies steal much of the money.

This is how Nito Alves' arrest represents far more than a single activist in jail. It is also an illustration of how the regime has lost its bearings, and has become erratic in its actions.

I am happy to announce that Nito Alves has just been released from jail, under a term of identity and residence, to wait for trial. Although I sing "Oh Happy Day!" I ask you to join me in demanding the unconditional release of Nito Alves. I also ask you to stand up with the people of Angola and be part of the solution, not the problem.

And I thank you wholeheartedly for having provided me with such an excellent opportunity to renew the cause of fighting against corruption in Angola. I have stated before, and I will repeat it: corruption is an impediment to democracy in Angola, for the current leaders will have no mercy in destroying the people and the country to protect their loot.

By Rafael Marques de Morais

The author is an Angolan journalist currently running the anti-corruption website makaangola.org. This speech was delivered upon the receipt of Transparency International's Integrity Award.