Justice advances with lawsuit against representative of the Portuguese School for disobedience

At issue, according to the order, is the fact that the Portuguese Cooperative of Education of Angola (CPEA), the entity that manages the Portuguese School, has not complied with the court's decision that prevents the increase in tuition fees until they are fixed in the General Assembly and obliges the accept the enrollment of all the children of the cooperators.

On the 9th of July, the Luanda court had decreed a precautionary measure preventing the increase in tuition fees and summoning the CPEA "not to place any obstacles and to accept the enrollment of all students educating the cooperators for the academic year 2021/2022 " and to abstain from "any conduct that jeopardizes the fundamental right of students to attend school".

However, the cooperants who had advanced with the action against the CPEA complained that the managing entity of the Portuguese School was disobeying the court's decision, continuing to charge fees and enroll with the increases imposed.

"After analyzing the response of the respondent [the CPEA] and since it does not consider the competence of the Angolan courts, it is possible to conclude, without the need for further evidence, that there is disobedience, by the defendant, of the judicial decision", stresses the order of the Judge Denise Ventura, dated 26 July.

The judge ordered, therefore, that certificates of sentence and order be extracted and sent to the Public Prosecutor's Office, which must institute "the competent crime of disobedience against the legal representative of the defendant", understanding that the appeal filed by the CPEA has an effect " merely devolutive", that is, it does not suspend the execution of the sentence.

This is yet another episode in the war between a group of cooperators who accuse the EPL management of "running over" the statutes and illegal increases in bribes, asking for their removal.

Last year, around 300 CPEA cooperators signed an application defending the holding of an extraordinary general meeting to discuss the revision of the statutes and proposed the dismissal of the current governing bodies of the cooperative and the appointment of an interim management committee.

At the time, the CPEA rejected the accusations, claiming that an attempt to seize power was at stake and justified the increases imposed in the 2020/2021 school year with the need to ensure the survival of the school.

The management of the Portuguese School, an entity created by Decree-Law 183/2006, under a protocol between Angola and Portugal was awarded by direct agreement to the CPEA, whose board of directors "has been seriously violating the cooperative's statutes, deciding on matters outside its competence, since 2017", allege the cooperators who filed the injunction.

Among these matters is the value of bribes, which was increased in several periods "by unilateral decision" of the CPEA administration, violating the decisions taken at the general meeting, according to the grounds presented by the cooperators in the injunction.

In response, according to the document consulted by Lusa, the CPEA stated that "the applicants' claim has no legal or factual basis, as it does not correspond to the truth at all" and emphasizes that it is the Portuguese State, represented by the Council of Patrons, which is responsible defining the guidelines for the budget and overseeing the execution of the management contract, having "ultimately, the power to decide" on those issues.

It also accuses the applicants of failing "recurringly with their statutory duties to participate in general meetings, regularly and timely convened and punctually make the expected payments of the annual operating subsidy (tuition fee)".

It also emphasizes that the overwhelming majority of applicants have no legitimacy for the action, some because they are not members of the cooperative and others because they owe large amounts.

"Applicants will always be able to achieve their goals of seeing their students enrolled in an educational establishment, free of charge, and within the reach of their financial capacity, enrolling their students in public schools of Angolan education", complements the CPEA, which requests the condemnation of the cooperators for "bad faith litigation".