Luanda - The MPLA candidate João Lourenço was re-elected Monday President of the Republic, for a second five-year term, following the general elections conducted on 24 August.
João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço was born on March 5, 1954, in Lobito, coastal province of Benguela, and is the son of Sequeira João Lourenço, a nurse, and Josefa Gonçalves Cipriano Lourenço, a seamstress, both deceased.
He is married to Ana Afonso Dias Lourenço and has six children.
He attended the primary and secondary education in the province of Bié and, in Luanda, he studied at the former Industrial School and the Industrial Institute.
From 1978 to 1982, he specialised in heavy artillery and obtained the academic degree of Master in Historical Sciences, at the former Soviet Union.
He speaks fluently English, Russian and Spanish languages.
From August 1974 onwards, he participated in the National Liberation Struggle, led by the MPLA, having received his first political-military training at the “Kalunga” Revolutionary Instruction Center (CIR) in the Republic of Congo.
He joined the first group of MPLA fighters, which, in 1974, entered the national territory, via Miconge, towards the city of Cabinda.
On the eve of National Independence, he participated in combats in Ntó-Iema, Cabinda, and other localities, against the invasion of the then Zairean army, which intended to occupy the territory of that province of Angola.
He also served as Political Commissioner of the then Popular Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA), at various levels, including political commissioner of the second Political-Military Region of Cabinda.
In 1980s, he participated in several military operations in the center of the country, such as in the provinces of Cuanza Sul, Huambo and Bié.
In 1983, he was president of the Regional Military Council of the third Political-Military Region, and, from 1989 to 1990, he served as head of the Political Directorate of FAPLA.
He is currently a (retired) general of the Angolan Armed Forces.
He has been a member of the MPLA Central Committee since 1985, being a member of its Political Bureau since 1990 and, following the VII Ordinary Congress of the party, held in 2016, he was elected vice-president.
He had already served as secretary of the Political Bureau for Information and for the Economic and Social Sphere, as well as the party’s secretary general.
In the field of government functions, he was appointed, in 1983, at age 29, provincial commissioner of Moxico, equivalent to the current position of provincial governor and from 1986 to 1989 he performed the same duties in Benguela.
In 2014, he was appointed Minister of Defence, a position he held until the start of the 2017 election campaign.
He was president of the MPLA Parliamentary Group from 1991 to 1998, and later president of the Constitutional Commission of the National Assembly, having also served as first deputy Speaker from 2003 to 2014.
His hobby includes reading, chess, horseback riding and is passionate about the new Information Technologies.
Profile of the Vice President of the Republic
Esperança Maria Eduardo Francisco da Costa was born in Luanda and studied Biology at Agostinho Neto University, where she graduated in 1985.
Between 1983-1984, she worked at the Botany Center of the Scientific Investigation Institute , in Lisbon, Portugal, and, on her return to Luanda, was appointed assistant in Plant Biology at Agostinho Neto University.
In 1986, she became head of the Biology Department.
Between 1986 and 1990, she developed the Luanda Herbarium and became Angola's representative to the African Biosciences Network (ABN), after attending a meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, on forest management.
In 1990, she started a Master's degree in Factory Productivity at the Technical University of Lisbon. From 1992 onwards, she worked on a thesis on Plant Ecology, obtaining her PhD from the same institution.
In 1997, she returned to Angola to be appointed professor at Agostinho Neto University, of which she is also director of the herbarium.
In the current government she serves as Secretary of State for Fisheries.
