João Lourenço, who was speaking at a meeting with young people in Luanda, addressed the topic after the intervention of civic activist, Rosa Mendes, one of the participants in this initiative, where various sectors and organizations were represented.
Rosa Mendes, who approached singing before beginning her intervention before about a hundred young guests, regretted that it was not possible to “bury Brother Inocêncio de Matos”, 15 days after the young man's death, following a demonstration and addressed situations of discrimination that women experience.
In addition to the difficulties experienced by women bullying and domestic workers, who are excluded from social support, Rosa Mendes also pointed out “modern slavery in the private sector”, of which she said she was also a victim.
“We are enslaved by whites”, accused the activist, lamenting that the members of the revolutionary movement (‘revus’) in Angola, for having a different opinion, are not recognized, as she said is her case.
“I ask you as a father, help us, do not call us names, do not treat us like troublemakers because we are all Angolans”, he appealed, addressing João Lourenço.
Rosa Mendes defined herself as “a victim of the system”, despite her commitment to the battle for democracy.
In response, the President stated that he did not call anybody names: "You are the ones who call themselves 'revus', if it is a compliment or a pejorative, everyone draws his conclusions".
João Lourenço also said that “those who fought for the freedom of this country were revolutionaries and were very proud of it”, so being a revolutionary is not pejorative.
“Nobody condemns what they are saying, it is not condemnable, it is your right”, he reinforced, stressing that “the revolution must be a revolution of ideas”.
The chief executive disapproved, on the other hand, of what he considered racist statements. “We do not support behavior of xenophobia and racism from those who come to say that they do not work with whites. There are bad whites, but there are also bad blacks, there are very bad blacks ", he stressed, adding:" what we have to fight is the evil, not the color of the skin ".
As for the intervention request to bury Inocêncio de Matos, he stressed that it does not depend on his authorization.
"This is just wanting to do a show, I know perfectly well what has happened so far and why the failure has not yet been buried," he said, questioning the activist's intention.
“Did the authorities prevent the innocence of Inocêncio de Matos? This is false. Did anyone prevent it? ”He asked, recalling that he also made every effort to carry out the funerals of UNITA's leader, Jonas Savimbi.
