The observance of prevention measures in mass public acts, promoted by political parties, was highlighted by the Minister of Health, Silvia Lutucuta, during a meeting that the Multisectoral Commission for the Prevention and Combat of Covid-19 held on Tuesday with the political parties with parliamentary seats.
According to Lutucuta, the virus "does not know any political shirt, economic class, race or place of residence" and the "behavior or evolution of the pandemic in our midst depends a lot on the behavior we have.
Political parties in Angola, especially the MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, in power) and UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, the largest opposition party), have been criticized by civil society for conducting public activities "without compliance with biosecurity measures" such as physical distance.
The fact gave rise to a meeting between the Multisectoral Commission for the Prevention and Combat of Covid-19 in Angola, chaired by its coordinator, Francisco Pereira Furtado, and the five Angolan political parties with seats in parliament.
Francisco Pereira Furtado, also Minister of State and Head of the President's House of Security, also urged the political forces to strictly follow the prevention measures against covid-19 to stop the spread of the virus.
"We are fully aware that the time is for everyone to join forces and participate in order to find the most adequate mechanisms to mitigate the effects of the covid-19 pandemic," he said.
On the other hand, the representatives of the political parties admitted non-compliance of the biosecurity measures by their militants and promised to "do everything to reverse the situation".
According to the secretary general of MPLA, Paulo Pombolo, his party "is disciplined", but "unfortunately" there were recent negative cases: "Last week we did not do very well in some localities, which means that as of today the guidelines to our committees have been reinforced".
"And we guarantee to work to correct the mistakes we made in these last few days," said the "comrades" politician.
UNITA's deputy secretary-general, Lázaro Kakunha, also acknowledged the "non-compliance of the biosecurity norms" in mass acts carried out by his party, promising to "do everything so that the authorities' guidelines are followed to the letter".
The vice president of the Broad Convergence for the Salvation of Angola - Electoral Coalition (CASA-CE), Alexandre Sebastião André, defended, on the occasion, the need to "not leave aside the disease that kills most in Angola, malaria.
"We are not the bad guy and we are simply trying to cohabitate with covid-19," said the CASA-CE politician.
Francisco Pereira Furtado also announced that "soon there will be much stricter measures regarding violations of the sanitary fence in the province of Luanda, because, he lamented, unfortunately our population systematically violates the rules."
"Creating crossing points outside police controls, but many are being caught in the other neighboring provinces and we will continue to redouble measures," he assured.
There are "measures that are also going to be taken regarding violations of home quarantine compliance, there have been many violations, we are going to work seriously to find mechanisms to control this type of negative conduct," the governor concluded.
