Angolan President Joao Lourenco, a general-turned-graft-buster who turned on his political patron, will be sworn in for a second term on Thursday but faces waning popularity in a country struggling.

The 68-year-old, nicknamed JLo, secured a new five-year term in the closest vote ever held in the oil-rich country.

Lourenco heads the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party, which has governed since independence from Portugal in 1975.

In the August 24 election, the MPLA suffered its worst performance while its longtime rival UNITA surged.

Lourenco’s victory was declared just 24 hours after he buried his predecessor, longtime ruler Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who died in Spain in July.

Lourenco was handpicked by dos Santos and took the helm in 2017. That year, his party won with a comfortable 61 percent of the vote. This time he reached only 51 percent.

He had promised far-reaching economic reforms and a fight against bribery.

However, the election result reflected dwindling support for the historic ruling party, particularly among young people who craved jobs and a better life.

Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco was born in Lobito in western Angola.

As a young man he fought against the colonial power Portugal and after independence took part in the civil war that broke out between the MPLA government and UNITA rebels.

Lourenco studied in the former Soviet Union, which educated many aspiring young African nationalists during decolonization.

He became political chief of the MPLA’s armed wing during the Civil War – a proxy Cold War conflict that led Cuban forces to fight alongside the MPLA while CIA-backed militias fought against them.

The ex-artillery general rose through the MPLA hierarchy and led the party in Parliament before becoming Deputy Speaker.

But his ambition almost ended his career.

Unable to hide his angling for the top job, he was sidelined by dos Santos around the turn of the century.

In 2014 he was brought out of the cold, he was appointed Secretary of Defense, three years later he rose to the top post.

After Lourenco won the 2017 election, he quickly turned against his predecessor and launched an anti-corruption campaign to win back the billions allegedly embezzled from the dos Santos family.

Heir to an economy in deep recession, he launched ambitious reforms to diversify government revenues and privatize state-owned companies.

Lourenco has trumpeted his achievements, but many of Angola’s 33 million people still wallow in poverty.

His anti-graft push has also been criticized as selective and politically motivated, fueling divisions within the MPLA.

Dos Santos’ death worsened his ailments and sparked a public row with the veteran leader’s children – some of whom are being investigated for transplants.

Despite this, Lourenco’s change of course from the previous regime has garnered praise abroad.

He has become the central mediator in Africa – in the crisis in the Central African Republic or in facilitating talks between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.

He is married to Ana Dias, a former planning minister who also represented Angola at the World Bank. They have six children.