To replace Manuel Homem, the governor of Benguela, Luís Nunes, was appointed, while the former minister of Economic Coordination, currently in the guise of deputy, Manuel Nunes Júnior will occupy this position.
With Eugénio Laborinho also leaves his Secretary of State for the Interior, José Paulino Cunha da Silva, and the Secretary of State for Technical Assurance, Carlos Armando Albino.
Eugénio Laborinho's leadership in the Interior department was marked by several controversies such as the phrase "the police are not about to distribute chocolates and sweets", applied to police charges against protesters in 2020, and the suspicions raised by the Angolan whistleblower "Man Gena", who was extradited from Mozambique, where he took refuge, after allegedly receiving death threats for reporting links between senior police officers and drug trafficking on social media.
Even so, Eugénio Laborinho remained one of the most lasting ministers in João Lourenço's executive, who appointed him in 2019 and maintained him in his second term, won in the 2022 general elections.
Last Friday, the President dismissed, "for convenience of service", the Secretary of State for Human Rights and Citizenship of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Ana Celeste Januário, appointing Antónia Cruz Yaba to the position.
In a statement, the Presidency's press office states that, in another decree, João Lourenço dismissed Brigadier Daniel Raimundo Savihemba, from the position of Deputy Chief of the Main Directorate of Operations of the General Staff of the Angolan Armed Forces, appointing him to 2nd Commander of the Ad-Hoc Verification Mechanism for the Pacification of the Eastern Region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after hearing the National Security Council.
Recently, João Lourenço also dismissed the national directors of the Migration and Foreigners Service and the Criminal Investigation Service, shortly after, in his State of the Nation speech on October 15, he accused politicians and parliamentarians of being linked to crimes smuggling and vandalization of public property.
On the occasion, João Lourenço stated that "the increase in fuel smuggling, the environmental damage resulting from the illegal exploitation of strategic minerals and wood", and the necessary public reinvestment due to the vandalization of public assets, forces us to join forces in a "crusade national campaign against these types of crime".
"Its authors, the buyers of the robbery proceeds, but above all the instigators and promoters, must be exemplarily punished", highlighted the President, stressing that "regrettably, some of them are politicians and parliamentarians".
The issue of fuel smuggling has been on the agenda since the Governor of Zaire asked João Lourenço to intervene to stop this "cancer", during the chief executive's visit to that province in August.
On social media there has been news about the seizure of fuel and speculation about crimes related to smuggling that led the Provincial Command of the National Police in Lunda-Norte to deny, on Wednesday, an alleged involvement of vehicles from the Military House of the President of Republic in acts of smuggling of goods.
On Tuesday, the deputy attorney general of the Republic, Inocência Pinto, confirmed that citizens suspected of involvement in fuel smuggling were being investigated.
Last month, the Minister of State and head of the Military House of the President of the Republic, Francisco Pereira Furtado, denounced, in the city of Soyo, Zaire province, the involvement of the country's senior leaders in fuel smuggling to the Democratic Republic of Congo (RDCongo).
Francisco Furtado stated that there are identified individuals involved in this phenomenon, including rulers, former rulers, general officers, commission officials, administrative authorities at provincial and municipal levels, in addition to traditional authorities.
