The organizers of the marches against unemployment in Luanda say that the Angolan authorities want to illegally incriminate the activists who climbed the statue of the first President of Angola, Agostinho Neto.
The organizers of last Thursday’s demonstration (10.12) against unemployment in Angola denounce that political exploitation is being made to incriminate the activists who climbed the Statue of Agostinho Neto, the first Angolan President.
The protesters are being accused by the Luanda provincial government of “desecrating the figure of Augustine”. Luanda’s Railways also alleges the vandalization of one of its trains.
In social networks, opinions are divided and the debate about national symbols is raised. Speaking to the newspaper O País, the Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Francisco Queiroz, considered the acts of the activists as desecration and guaranteed that they could be held legally responsible.
For the minister, legal provisions may be triggered so that “the young demonstrators will be held responsible for the abuse and vandalism to the figure of the first President of the Republic, António Agostinho Neto”.
Political harness
Pedrowski Teca, the organizer of the demonstration last Thursday, says that the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the ruling party, is making political use of the issue to discredit the image of young people who protest in favor of better living conditions for Angolans.
Pedrowski explains that the purpose of the demonstrators was to put a shirt with the face of Inocêncio Matos on the statue of the first President of Angola. The 26-year-old protester was killed during a protest in Luanda on 11 November with a blow to the head. The assassination sparked a huge revolt in Angola.
Activist Pedrowski Teca says the protesters just wanted to demand justice for the death of Inocêncio Matos.
“They didn’t count on us having the courage to do what we did. Worse, they thought that when we climbed the statue, we would knock it down. But it was not our intention ”, he explained.
Pedrowski Teca justifies that the trajectory traveled by the demonstrators does not have iron paths to be accused of throwing stones at a locomotive. Reacting to the pronouncements of the Minister of Justice and Human Rights, he stated that the Largo da Independência, where the statue is located, is not a sanctuary to be desecrated.
“We are facing the statue of someone who usurped Angola’s independence out of ambition. The minister was unhappy because the Constitution of the Republic does not designate the statue of Agostinho Neto or any other statue as a national symbol, ”he said.
“We heard the same criticisms from the governor of Luanda and also from the Political Bureau of the MPLA. They have nowhere to pick up and thought that people would be distracted. They thought that people did not know the Constitution. But what we are seeing is that national public opinion and law experts are contradicting each other ”, he concluded.
Nuno Dala summoned by SIC
Nuno Dala was at the protest, which also required the holding of municipal elections. The young activist was summoned to appear at the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) this Tuesday (15.12).
In an interview with DW Africa, Dala said he did not respond to the subpoena, because SIC did not clarify the reason for the notification.
“According to my lawyers, there are no procedural guarantees in terms of which my presence at SIC can be justified, in terms of legal rationality,” he stressed.
“Secondly, the notification was delivered ‘on the knee’, that is, it was last Friday, the 11th, that the due diligence officer sent the notification notice, which gave me little room to maneuver to effectively adjust the agenda so that it could be at SIC ”, added the activist.
Nuno Dala also stresses that the protesters did not violate the law and that there was no vandalism. “They are criticisms of people who were not there, people who did not bother to evaluate the relationship that exists between the objectives of the demonstration, the frustration that the youth faces today and the understanding of the youth regarding the death of Inocêncio Matos, as well as effectively, the reading that young people have of the history of our country, from 1975 to here. This allows us to understand what happened at the demonstration on the 10th, ”explained Dala.
