Francisco Patient told Lusa that, since Friday, the date on which the new price of gasoline began to take effect, until this Tuesday, around 400 cards were produced.
"Unfortunately, the measure was taken before the respective cards were produced and now there is some difficulty in assigning the cards", said Francisco Patient, who participated in a meeting with the National Road Transport Agency and Luanda taxi drivers, to address the issue. card issue.
Last Thursday, the Angolan Government announced the gradual withdrawal of the fuel subsidy, which started with gasoline, maintaining the subsidy for other oil derivatives.
“The Government, through the agency, told us that some bureaucracies were removed from the process and as of today the Government started to issue 500 cards per day, more banks increased the issue of cards (...). In the next two days we will see how the distribution of these cards will be, to see if it covers a greater number of taxi drivers, not only in Luanda, but also in the provinces, where there are already disastrous situations at the moment”, he said.
The province of Huambo, on Monday, and Huíla, this Tuesday, registered some violent protests due to the increase in the price of gasoline, with police intervention, with in the first case a balance of five dead, eight injured and more of 30 arrests.
Francisco Patient underlined that all cards issued to date have benefited only taxi drivers in Luanda, where 1,500 taxi drivers with gasoline-powered vehicles are registered.
The official said that they were waiting for reports from the provinces of Huíla, Huambo, Namibe, where most of the vehicles run on petrol, unlike Luanda, which has 80 percent of diesel vehicles.
According to the president of ANATA, if the Government meets this daily production target, “it will be a good way to distribute cards to taxi drivers”.
Asked about the mood of taxi drivers in Luanda at this time, Francisco Patient said that awareness work has been carried out, calling for calm "to avoid disastrous situations".
“And we are demanding that the Government be quick in allocating cards, to avoid reactions like those we are seeing in other provinces. Everything can be avoided according to the production and distribution capacity of cards to taxi drivers”, he stressed.
The official stressed that the greater the number of cards issued and distributed, this will help both taxi drivers and citizens to “understand that it is a process”.
“Particularly because, according to the Government, the cards are being loaded with the balance of the days when the taxi drivers did not have the card. The cards began to be delivered on the 2nd of June, those who received this Tuesday will have their balance on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th”, he stressed.
“Luanda is still calm, as a result of that meeting that brought together taxi drivers and representatives of fleet managers from the province of Luanda, and we will continue to dialogue so that the Government resolves this problem of cards as urgently as possible”, he said.
While the process of handing over the cards is taking place, Francisco Patient said that they have received reports of isolated cases of the increase in the price of the taxi ride, but "there is no need", because the missing days will be paid, reiterating that "if the diesel does not has gone up and gasoline will be subsidized, there is no reason for the taxi ride price to rise”.
“But in isolation, we hear that one or another taxi driver has made a climb in the taxi ride, we do not verify it, but we are actually receiving these reports”, adding that the same problem is verified with those who shortened the routes .
