According to the document, sent to Lusa and forwarded to President João Lourenço last Friday, the Minister of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication, Mário Oliveira, is said to have licensed three radio stations “outside the law”.
According to the complaint, there is a “serious violation” of the Constitution and the country’s laws due to the fact that the minister of the sector allegedly granted licenses “based on criteria of cronyism and favoritism, abusively excluding any initiative that is not within his political circle or friends”.
Waiting since 2016 for the licensing of a radio station, Angolan journalist Coque Mukuta, one of the signatories of the document, highlighted that evidence was attached to the complaint sent to the President of the Republic, “to show that something is not right”.
To open a local radio station, the law requires a share capital of 55 million kwanzas, while for a national radio station it requires 150 million kwanzas.
“Therefore, it is not possible that certain radio stations with a share capital of 100,000 kwanzas and even 50,000 kwanzas have been granted licenses, [while] we submit a radio station licensing application and are not granted the license, supposedly because we do not meet these requirements,” the professional lamented.
For Coque Mukuta, issuing licenses outside of legal requirements constitutes a lack of respect for constitutional principles, and Mário Oliveira should therefore be dismissed.
“We ask Your Excellency, President of the Republic, João Lourenço, to dismiss and hold civilly and criminally liable the Angolan citizen and Minister of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication, Mário Oliveira, for violating the Law on the Exercise of Radio Broadcasting Activities and other laws of the Republic of Angola,” reads the complaint sent to the President with the knowledge of the Attorney General’s Office.
The radio stations Cuquema, Correio da Kianda and Zango 8,000 are at issue, whose share capital varies between 50,000 and 150,000 kwanzas and which were allegedly licensed because they belong to people close to senior officials in the ministerial body and even the Presidential Palace, according to the documents attached to the complaint.
When asked what he expects from the President in light of this complaint, Coque Mukuta, also secretary of the Angolan Journalists' Card and Ethics Committee, reiterated the need to dismiss the minister in the sector.
The President of the Republic “has the powers he has, but he must know that he is there to serve all Angolans, there are many Angolans who are shocked (…). What we expect the President [of the Republic] to do is to heed our complaint and dismiss the minister,” he stressed.
For the journalist, this step is necessary "so that the other entity that may be appointed can comply with the law and be fair to the Republic of Angola, independent, sovereign and based on equality."
According to Coque Mukuta, 173 people signed the complaint in person and another 632 through a portal.
