"We are discussing the professional license and we understand that if it does not take effect in the eighth or ninth month of the year there is a greater probability of a stoppage, if the authorities do not attend to the burning concerns of taxi drivers, especially the professional license", said this Wednesday to Lusa the president of ATA, Rafael Inácio.
According to the president of the Associação dos Taxistas de Angola (ATA), the discussion on the professional license of the class has lasted for five years, in early 2022, following the last strike, the authorities promised to resolve, but so far nothing has changed.
"Until now, neither water goes nor water comes. We were promised that the portfolio would be a fact, in 2022, and so far nothing and we think it was a merely electoral and political promise, above all", he lamented.
Rafael Inácio says that the professionalization of the class is of interest to all taxi drivers in the country and the license should guarantee "greater personality, greater guarantee, more organization, greater mobility and inclusion of taxi drivers in social security".
"In other words, our biggest struggle at the moment is the professionalization of the activity, which is why we decided to revive the subject and continue to ask those who are entitled to professionalization to become a fact, under penalty of being paralyzed again", he concluded.
The last taxi drivers' strike in Luanda took place exactly one year ago, on January 10, 2022, a stoppage that created enormous constraints for citizens in various locations in the capital.
The stoppage of taxi drivers in 2022 was also marked, as a result, by demonstrations and acts that contributed to the vandalism of an MPLA committee and the vandalization of a public bus, in Benfica.
