Speaking to Lusa, the secretary-general of the General Confederation of Independent and Free Trade Unions of Angola (CGSILA) mentioned that he was not aware of the reasons that led to no meeting being held between 2017 and 2022, stressing that the country's issues were discussed in the council and "the Government really knew how to listen to the partners, even though it was not a binding body, only for consultation, but it was done regularly".
According to Francisco Jacinto, the body was created and the regulation was approved by a deliberation of the Council of Ministers, by the then President, José Eduardo dos Santos, who established two annual meetings, one in the first quarter of the year and another in the last quarter.
"And we always had this regular meeting", said the leader, noting that the body was coordinated by the vice president of the Republic, who was responsible for convening and presiding over the meeting.
"In the mandate of President João Lourenço, 2017-2022, we only know that after taking office, one or two months later, we were asked to resend the names, to confirm the names of the representatives of the organizations and we were also assured that they would change the regulation", he explained.
Francisco Jacinto said that the regulation was amended and passed to the effective coordination of the President of the Republic, being able to delegate his powers to the Vice President of the Republic to convene and preside.
"The truth is that from that date until today, nothing has been said to us again, we know that the then Minister of Territory Administration, Bornito de Sousa, had also guaranteed that they were doing work so that, at the provincial level, the councils of consultations began to function along the lines of the national council. The truth is that no other meeting took place", he underlined.
In the last five years, recalls Francisco Jacinto, two meetings were held, chaired by the Minister of State and Chief of Staff of the President of the Republic, for the approval of two legal diplomas, namely the Labor Procedure Code and the General Law Revision Project of Work.
"It's this meeting we had, I don't know if I can call this meeting an organ of the council, because it only discussed two issues, it was just a meeting of consultation and document approval, it didn't have that dimension of a meeting of the National Council for Social Dialogue ", he said.
According to the secretary general of CGSILA, "there are accumulated problems, investment problems, management problems, problems in the country's productive sectors, [namely] agriculture, industry, etc."
"We have several problems, but that the executive has discussed alone, defines and approves and executes, but that we as partners of the State do not know anything about what is done in this country, what is happening in this country", he lamented.
Francisco Jacinto claims that this situation occurs after Angola ratified the Tripartite Convention 144, which allows for permanent dialogue between the Government, employers, workers and social partners.
"That is, before ratifying the convention, meetings were held regularly, and even the specialized committees in various departments functioned, now with the ratification of Convention 144, which obliges the Government to listen to the partners and many of their decisions have to be binding , despite being a consultative body, the Government stopped convening and meeting with partners", he stressed.
Regarding the absence of these meetings, Francisco Jacinto points out as consequences the lack of knowledge of the situation in the country and the trade union movement, as well as the violation by the Government of Convention 144.
"The second consequence is to create speculation (...) how the country is doing with regard to the economy, the social sector, regarding the training issue and what are the policies that were defined in that mandate to leverage the economy, to stabilize the area country, creating the fundamental bases for the country's development.
In addition to CGSILA, the Union of Angolan Workers - Trade Union Confederation (UNTA-CS) is part of the council, with two members each, employers, represented by the Industrial Association of Angola (AIA) and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Government represented by several ministries.
