Speaking to the Angolan Catholic broadcaster, the spokesperson for the collective of UEA workers in Luanda, Raimundo de Carvalho, laments the wage delay of a year and eight months and calls for an "urgent resolution" of the situation.
This employee says "there is no explanation" from the employer on the matter and says that they are facing difficulties to support their families, admitting the paralysis of work: "We are at the limit", he said.
Mariquinha Cosme, from the group of more than 20 employees in this condition, says she is "tired with the situation", that has been dragging on for almost two years, noting that she is selling what little domestic utensils she has left "to survive".
"One year and eight months without wages is a lot, please we want help because we are tired, our children are sick, one child is out of the school system for lack of money, we are tired," vented the mother, a widow.
The head of the Administration and Finance department of UEA, António Laureano, assumed the debt and blames the Ministry of Finance for the delays in salaries in that Angolan institution of public utility.
According to the responsible, UEA, founded in 1975 by the first President, António Agostinho Neto, stopped receiving financial commitment from the Ministry of Finance, via the Ministry of Culture, in December 2019.
"So far, we have no official information about the reasons for the non-budgetary funding to UEA," António Laureano told Ecclesia Radio.
Librarians, drivers, administrative staff, gardeners, security agents and others make up the bulk of UEA workers without salaries.
Founded on December 10, 1975, the UEA is the oldest cultural organization of Angola's post-independence era and was proclaimed by the first Angolan president, António Agostinho Neto, who was the first leader of the general assembly table.
With its headquarters in Luanda, the UEA has several spaces divided into a library, a cybercafé, a publishing sector, an auditorium for 150 people, a VIP room and even a noble hall for the work of its affiliates.
The writer David Capelenguela is, since May 2019, the secretary general of the Angolan Writers Union.
