Benedito Daniel, leader of the opposition PRS party, said in his response to João Lourenço's speech on the state of the nation last Thursday that the President presented a report in which he exonerates himself from responsibility for the current financial crisis in the country.
"He found a culprit, the so-called covid-19, to whom he attributes all the blame," he said.
For the president of the social renovators, João Lourenço made an incursion to what was done, "but he did not say what will be done and neither presented a concrete plan so that the Angolans will understand that, after all, tomorrow will be better".
"The real country falls short of what was presented by the President of the Republic on October 15. The practical indicators of the last years are not encouraging, because the prices of the basic basket products, and others, rise every day," he noted.
According to the politician, the entrepreneurs "have no way to maintain the companies and are sending to unemployment, every day, the citizens", while the health and education system "remains one of the most precarious".
The "delinquency is getting higher and higher in most cities, at last, once again the head of state presented us with a virtual country, based on beautiful reports made in good offices", commented the deputy.
In his speech on the state of the nation last Thursday in the National Assembly, which also marked the opening of the parliamentary year 2020-2021, João Lourenço announced that Angola created 19,000 jobs in the first half of 2020.
He stressed that the labour market "was strongly shaken" due to the covid-19 pandemic, even though 19 thousand workers found work through employment centers or in contact with companies.
Seven thousand redundancies and more than 14 thousand suspensions of employment were registered in the same period, especially in the services sector, trade and industry, education and construction, he added.
In his reply to the PR speech, Benedito Daniel stated that the economic crisis in the country "did not come because of covid-19, it is much earlier".
"Therefore, it should not serve as an excuse for the failure to fulfill the promises that the executive made to the Angolan people," he stressed.
Regarding the diversification of the economy, the president of PRS said that the promise of an effective diversification is far from being realized for lack of political will.
In fact, he added, "this is how the ruling party has been governing the country for 45 years".
"Everything is just good speeches full of good intentions, but in practice it doesn't come true," he said.
On that occasion, President João Lourenço said that the local elections, scheduled for 2020, "were not postponed because they were never called" and stressed that it would be "unrealistic and irresponsible" to hold suffrage this year.
The head of state addressed the holding of local elections this year, as recommended by the Council of the Republic in 2018 and "complied" by the Executive, but stressed that there were no conditions because the necessary legislative package had not been completed.
Benedito Daniel also accused the President of being "responsible for postponing" the first municipal elections because "it makes no sense for the Council of the Republic to recommend the holding of municipalities in 2020 and he recommends otherwise.
"And it is also justified that the elections were never called. It should, at the very least, clarify the difficulties encountered, the way they will be overcome and the prediction that they will be held," he said.
Regarding the process of fighting corruption and recovering assets, he also said it was "necessary and urgent" for the actions of the competent bodies "to remove the elitist character of the process".
The fight against corruption, he stressed, is a process that must involve the participation of all citizens in order to purge it from society and not one exclusive of a political or judicial elite.
"All the people must participate with their own mechanisms so that the impact is reflected in society," he concluded.
