Samakuva took over the leadership of UNITA last Friday, after Adalberto Costa Júnior's presidency was suspended by decision of the Constitutional Court (TC), by annulment of the XIII ordinary congress that elected him in 2019.
Isaias Samakuva said the TC's decision "is political, but also historic".
"Politics, because in the end it confirms the political position expressed by the Political Bureau of the MPLA [Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, the ruling party] in an official statement, on 3 August this year, when he stated that the presidency of Adalberto Costa Júnior in UNITA was hanging by a thread," said Isaias Samakuva, who was party leader from 2003 to 2019.
According to the UNITA leader, the court's decision constitutes a serious threat to UNITA's integrity and cohesion, because "it can create confusion among militants, pit angolans against each other, demobilize the social movement for change and prevent alternation".
"We UNITA members must maintain serenity and tranquility to preserve unity, leaders and non-leaders must all at this delicate moment promote unity within the party," appealed Samakuva.
According to Isaías Samakuva, acts similar to this one, "performed by state bodies with the same objective, in 1975, 1991, 1998 and in 2005, in all cases UNITA's identity and political integrity were the apparent target, but not In the end, the affected entity was Angola, the harmed entity was the whole country".
"There was confusion, exclusion, Angola was stuck in time and the country did not advance. We are facing yet another trap in the long process of building the Angolan nation. This time we should not fall into that trap," he stressed.
For Isaías Samakuva, the situation now created provides "a beautiful opportunity" to talk more openly about the direction that is intended to take Angola.
"Angola's problems are so serious, the crisis is so deep that we must not be distracted by issues that divide us. This is the moment of serenity, tranquility and unity. It is the moment of defense of our UNITA, founded in Muangai, by our founding president Jonas Malheiro Savimbi," he stressed.
"UNITA is a perennial institution, which cannot be shaken by the simple instrumentality of anyone," he added.
Isaías Samakuva, who led the "Black Rooster" party for 16 years, until November 2019, returns to the presidency until the election of a new president, at the XIII congress, whose date will be fixed in the second half of this month at the political commission meeting of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), said the party's spokesman, Marcial Dachala.
The announcement was made last Friday at the SOVSMO Complex, in Viana (Luanda), at a press conference in which Adalberto da Costa Júnior and Isaías Samakuva also participated.
Adalberto Costa Júnior says there is a "political arrangement" for the destruction of the party
UNITA's suspended leader, Adalberto Costa Júnior said that the ruling of the Constitutional Court, which annulled the party's 13th congress, lacks a legal and legal basis "and refers to a political arrangement" for its destruction.
Adalberto Costa Júnior, the leader suspended from his duties following the ruling no. 700/2021 of the Constitutional Court, expressed the party's position through a statement of reaction to the court's decision, which annulled the XIII party congress, held in 2019, in which he was elected, and consequently suspended his term as president.
According to Adalberto Costa Júnior, UNITA "refuses to accept that the right is camouflaged to make the truth unfeasible".
One of the first weaknesses pointed out has to do with the fact that the standing committee was not given due importance, the body that organizes and manages congresses in the party's statutes and holds unquestionable powers and competences, which only cease with the taking of possession of the new standing committee of the elected political commission.
"There is no doubt that this is a legal 'fiction' and a political subterfuge, the allegation that the standing committee was resigning and had no legitimacy to extend the deadlines," the statement said.
According to UNITA, this justification "does not correspond to the truth and stems from the ignorance of UNITA's internal rules and the intention with which the Constitutional Court dealt with the matter in question".
In the statement, UNITA said it did not understand why the judgment considered the standing committee vulgar and lacking the legitimacy and powers to act.
For the biggest opposition party, "here the Constitutional Court committed its most serious error of appreciation."
"From the start, as in the State, at UNITA, the bodies in force end their mandate with the swearing in of the new elected bodies", said Adalberto Costa Júnior, considering "it is still necessary to say, with great regret, that this assessment by the Court Constitution is devoid of legal and doctrinal foundation, accepted in the Angolan legal system and represents a gross interference in the internal life of UNITA, which is not allowed by law."
The UNITA leader stressed that there is "a clear expedient of the intention to politically destroy UNITA, contrary to the provisions of the adjective law under article 668, paragraph 1 of subparagraph b) of the Code of Civil Procedure, which has as epigraph 'Cause of nullity of the sentence'".
The party considered that instead of attacking the allegedly flawed act of the UNITA president's election process, with this ruling, the TC ended up attacking Congress in all its acts.
"Which leads UNITA to affirm that the judgment in question lacks a legal and legal basis and refers to a political arrangement, whose purpose is the destruction of UNITA", pointed out the statement.
