Speaking to the Lusa news agency, Francisco Paciente was talking about the announcement of a stoppage of taxi services, from 1 to 3 March, if the demands presented to the authorities are not met.
Among the demands, is the access to social security criteria, in a more simplified way and also to a professional card.
Francisco Paciente said that it is understood by professional license, in addition to the driving license, the construction of a profile for taxi drivers, which will differentiate you from a private driver.
"This profile starts with training in human relations, professional ethics and deontology, hygiene and safety at work, first aid and even the toponymy of the provinces where the taxi driver is. After these training cycles, the taxi driver qualifies for a license These are our pretensions with regard to public policies ", he explained.
Other concerns have to do with the possibility of access to microcredit, competitions for housing, the poor condition of roads and the main taxi stops or plazas in Luanda.
"We are also talking about the abuse of the authorities, especially the agents of the SIC [Criminal Investigation Service], who daily challenge taxi drivers, attack taxi drivers, in the tendency to monitor the law, they go overboard, in many cases they attack taxi drivers, arrest, "he complained.
Taxi drivers also feel discriminated against regarding the enforcement of biosafety measures due to covid-19, because public buses or private companies subsidized by the State continue to disrespect the decree, to carry over 75 percent of capacity, "but nothing happens to them ".
"Sometimes it takes even more than 100 percent, we have been posting images, and the Government says nothing, but when taxi drivers do the same - in some cases the taxi driver takes 11 people plus a child on the lap of one of the passengers - they are detained, taken to court or fined, sometimes over 50,000 kwanzas ", he complained.
The union leader recalled that on the 29th of January, before the decree on the state of public calamity was updated, they wrote to the Civil House of the President of the Republic, the ministers of Interior and Health and the government of the province of Luanda, but without "any response ", as well as local administrations.
Francisco Paciente said that only on Monday, after the stoppage was announced, interest was expressed by the Minister of Transport, who took the initiative to guide the Secretary of State for Transport, the director of the Instituto dos Transportes Rodoviários to a meeting, at which the deputy governor of the province of Luanda for the Social Area, the director of the Luanda Traffic and Mobility Office, the deputy director of the Luanda SIC and the Luanda traffic commander also participated.
"We are going to continue with the Government's response work agenda for taxi drivers and on the 27th and 28th we will take stock, whether the Government managed to deliver on what it promised or not, and then decide how we are left with this stoppage ", said.
If concerns are answered, "obviously there has to be common sense" for taxi drivers. "If, within those five days, the Government meets 80 percent of the concerns and shows interest in continuing to work, we can extend the deadline for the strike until all points are met," he added.
ANATA is a national association, with a total of 22,000 members, of which 17,000 are in Luanda.
The union leader stressed that a stoppage in services will have an extremely negative impact on communities, taking into account that more than 80 percent of trips in the capital, with a large public transport deficit, are handled by informal taxi drivers.
"We do not want to paralyze purely and simply to serve as entertainment or as a protagonist, we want to paralyze due to the concerns of taxi drivers emanating from the document", he underlined, recalling that with the stoppage between 8 and 10 June 2020 the country recorded losses of 480 million kwanzas, only with respect to fuels.
