The management of the company communicated the decision internally to its employees on Thursday, after receiving notification from the South African operator, which terminated the contract for non-compliance, according to a source connected to the channel.
Tchizé dos Santos, was one of the initial investors in the channel, but according to a source contacted by Lusa, who asked not to be identified, the daughter of former president José Eduardo dos Santos was asked to leave the project a few months after the start of the operation, "because of her personal and political interests."
"We never had any input from the lady, nobody ever saw her around here and nobody was working under her guidance or agenda, just look at the content produced. But we fell by the wayside because of this unfortunate association," the source said, stressing that "those who are here [at Vida TV], only wanted to work, they don't care about politics."
"The lady will remain rich, as she says several times on social networks and touring Europe and we will go back to our parents' house. As long as the country remains hostage to the interests of politicians, it is only the people who suffer. Unfortunately here we have another sad example. The ministry, with the suspension, wanted to put an end to the channel, that's it, it succeeded", he continued.
On April 21, the government suspended the channels Record TV Africa, ZAP Viva and Vida TV, a measure justified with "legal inconsistencies", also leaving suspended the provisional registrations of newspapers, magazines, news websites and radio stations without effective activity in the last two years, whose list was never released.
In the case of Record TV Africa, owned by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) involved in several controversies and lawsuits in Angola, the Ministry of Telecommunications, Information Technology and Media (MINTTICS) alleged that the company had as executive director a foreign citizen, as well as foreign journalists who were neither accredited nor accredited at the Anibal de Melo Press Center.
On the other hand, the pay-TV providers, namely, TV CABO S.A, DSTV ANGOLA, SA, FINSTAR - owner of ZAP TV, owned by the businesswoman and also daughter of the former Angolan president, Isabel dos Santos, are duly legalized, but "they distribute the channels ZAP Viva, Vida TV and Rede Record without the registration to exercise the activity of television in Angola", which determined the suspension.
At the time, MINTTICS said that its action was aimed at allowing the adjustment of the process of granting the definitive registration title for the exercise of the activity to the media companies and gave no further explanation to date.
Organizations such as the Union of Angolan Journalists and the Institute for Social Communication in Southern Africa (MISA-Angola) expressed concern over the decision, as it jeopardized the plurality of information now being broadcast only by public channels, controlled by the Angolan state, and questioned the laws invoked for the suspension.
Former MPLA deputy Tchizé dos Santos said at the time that the measure exposed the "dictatorship" of João Lourenço and complained again of political persecution of the relatives of the former president, linked to two of the three suspended channels (Zap Viva and VIDA TV).
