Catholic bishop says vandalism in Luanda shows need for dialogue

"And it is this need for a merciful, dialoguing and compassionate heart that the country needs at the present moment in its history. The events of yesterday [Monday] show that there is an imperative need for an intense social dialogue", said the Catholic bishop during a homily.

For Belmiro Chissengueti, who was speaking at the mass broadcast by Rádio Ecclesia – Emissora Católica, "those who are responsible for running the State should not be exiled from their responsibilities".

"They are there to create bridges of communion, to help preserve the greater good achieved 20 years ago, the good of peace, so we, the elders who know the history of this country and live it in the flesh, are apprehensive about signs that are not nothing positive and our apprehension is legitimate", he noted.

The first day of the taxi drivers' strike in Luanda, on Monday, was marked by acts of vandalism on a Ministry of Health bus, which was completely charred, and at the headquarters of the district committee of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), in Benfica, an act attributed to a group of citizens detained by the police for summary judgment.

According to the Catholic bishop, "the country's social difficulties are many, they cannot be hidden, and must be satisfied." "We must have wisdom, patience and courage to respond to the current situation that we are experiencing as a crisis", he added.
For the religious, "don't find guilty and take the country to the beat, nobody wins with that", asking young people "patience and a sense of history".

"Patience, not to silence your demands, which must be heard in permanent and inclusive dialogue, but also not to spoil public goods, because every bus that breaks down is more damage, every car that breaks down is less good, every good public that is harmed, we ourselves are the most harmed", he urged.

The spokesperson for the Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé (CEAST) also defended that "those in authority should meet with young people in order to find work policies aimed at employing youth".

"Thus, looking at the country with eyes to see, what is a priority at this moment is that the leaders of the main parties of this country, on behalf of these people that they meet, do not radicalize their positions because no one gains from this", he stressed.

Belmiro Chissengueti also considered it necessary for the leaders to "hold hands, giving positive signals to their followers and removing from the fanatics' heads, those who have long lost their rationality, the perspective that violence is not the way forward". "Nobody wins anything, we just lose", he stressed.

Luanda was the scene of disturbances and acts of vandalism on the first day of the strike called by three associations of taxi drivers, incidents that resulted in the arrest of 29 people.