Francisco Patient was spoken to the press at the end of an meeting between Anata and the Inter ec -cuclesial committee, consisting of the Episcopal Conference of Angola and Sao Tome (Ceast), Evangelical Alliance of Angola (AEA), Angola Christian Churches (CICA) and Angolan Christian Forum (FCA).
According to Francisco Patienta, at the meeting was addressed the concern linked to the arrest of Anata vice president, Rodrigo Catimba, who, claimed, "has nothing to do with the situations that occurred on that date."
Rodrigo Luciano Catimba was arrested on July 31, in Benguela province, three days after the protests and riots recorded in several provinces, following the strike -decreed strike, convened by Anata, between July 28 and 30 last, which resulted in 30 dead, more than two hundreds of 1500 arrests, according to authorities.
The Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) announced at the time that Catimba was arrested on suspicion of incitement to violence, crime apology, rebellion and terrorism.
According to Rodrigo Catimba's lawyer, the arrest is illegal, arguing that during the interrogation, the judge of guarantees was “simply” in a video that circulates on social networks, dated July 25, where his client summoned the taxi stoppage.
"We took advantage of the concern of the detention of Anata's vice-president, to ask the church's intercession so that our rulers, institutions of justice, give the young taxi driver freedom, who has nothing to do with the situations that occurred on that date," said Francisco Patient.
Anata's president said the arrest of his deputy is being accompanied by lawyers, stressing that he has spoken to Rodrigo Catimba, ensuring that "he is well and the process is following his legal procedures."
"We understand that, in the meantime, we will effectively guide a decent stance, as taxi drivers, as an association. We are providing our solidarity every day, because he is a senior member of Anata and is a taxi driver, we are providing our support to the family and the law of lawyers," he said.
In turn, the churches appealed to dialogue in the search for solutions, promising to continue bridge between the state and the lowest fringes of society, "which are those that are boiling much more," said Ceast representative at the meeting, Father José João.
"The church will continue to make its diplomacy, its positive pressure, in the sense that the Angolan state quickly helps the most varied situations of lack that our people live," he said.
According to Reverend Luís Gimbi of the Evangelical Church of Angola, this is the first of other encounters that churches intend to make before presenting a proposal to the government, about the social and economic situation of the country.
"We are with taxi drivers, we will continue to work with other groups between politicians, civil society and, finally, collected all these subsidies, we will work with the executive, whom we trust, with our vote placed in the ballot box to manage the country," he said, appealing to the dialogue.
"We appeal that, at this moment, that the waves are very agitated, there will be calm (…) we will follow the normal life, putting aside certain attitudes that tend to aggravate the situation more," said the former Secretary-General of Cica.
Also the reverend Vladimir Agostinho of the United Methodist Church and Secretary General of Cica considered that Angolans are living in a situation in which it is necessary to "find ways and solutions to solve, which is the question of fuel climb."
"That deeply moves the lives of families, which are impacted not only of the rise of the taxi, but also of the basic basket, but this is not resolved with vandalization, with looting, with everything we saw on the 28th, 29th and 30th, we would not like to revive that sad scenario, in which lives were lost, this resolves with dialogue," he said.
