The position was expressed, in a press conference, by the leader of the parliamentary group of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Liberty Chiaka, who stated that the President “governed against the Constitution, against democracy and against the well-being of be with all Angolans”.
João Lourenço took office for the second time as President of Angola on September 15, 2022, after his first term between 2017-2022.
“Corruption has increased, the cost of living has risen sharply, unemployment continues to rise, the solutions tried by the Government are proving to be ineffective and the people have lost confidence in the President of the Republic”, said Liberty Chiaka.
According to the leader of the UNITA parliamentary group, the future of children “is seriously threatened” and the “general feeling of citizens is that the President of the Republic betrayed the oath he took and no longer has solutions for the country”.
Liberty Chiaka stated that, due to the political orientation he established in the country's governance, as holder of executive power, “the President of the Republic not only failed to achieve the objectives of the National Development Plan (PDN), reflected in the General State Budget, but also it did worse: it subverted the democratic process, having consolidated a monolithic regime in the country, which threatens peace and the fundamental rights of Angolans”.
“The President of the Republic eliminated the already weak pluralism that existed in public media bodies, consolidated the inequalities of opportunities and treatment of different currents of political opinion in the public space”, he highlighted.
According to Liberty Chiaka, João Lourenço failed to behave transparently by not justifying “the whereabouts of the excess money resulting from the difference between the estimated price of a barrel of oil, which was used to prepare the budget, and the real price , higher, that was actually collected throughout the economic year”.
“This is significant, unbudgeted revenue. Where for this money? Is it saved? Was it spent? How, when, where and with whom was it spent?” he asked.
Direct awards, continued the leader of the UNITA parliamentary bench, have become a rule and public tenders an exception, “exactly the opposite of what the law requires”, accusing the President of the Republic of choosing “four companies owned by friends or of people from their political group to benefit from the main public contracts in all sectors of the economy”.
“The first year of this last term of office of the holder of executive power was characterized by more than fifty systemic violations of the provisions of the Public Procurement Law and the General State Budget Law. Never has a ruler violated the law in this way without any fear of being held responsible”, said the politician, rejecting a review of the law, but rather its full compliance.
The first year of João Lourenço's second term was also marked by the use of the Constitution “not as a foundation for the exercise of republican power, but as an instrument to maintain oligarchic power”, he stated.
Liberty Chiaka accused João Lourenço of using “the military and its code of military discipline, not to protect the country and promote sustainable development and the well-being of the people, but to subvert the constitutional system of Government of the Republic of Angola”. “This conduct is equally dismissible,” he declared.
On August 16th, at least 86 UNITA deputies signed an initiative to dismiss the Angolan President, with the party leadership considering that “the legal conditions were met” for the process to begin.
