Teixeira Cândido reported, at a press conference, on the occurrence of two robberies this year, both in circumstances yet to be clarified, with the SJA's main computer and database having been stolen in both cases.
According to the union leader, the Criminal Investigation Service was involved in the first robbery, however, on "Saturday, December 3, the union headquarters was robbed again and curiously they took the same computer".
"And once again there are no signs of breaking into the door, the lock that secures the first door was open, it was on the floor, without having been broken into, everything was intact, and they took the computer", he said.
Teixeira Cândido stressed that the lock, bought in a market and not in a store "exactly on purpose" on suspicion, was changed 15 days ago, adding that the union's headquarters are next to the Ministry of the Interior, on the third floor of a building with several residents.
The union official said that two other journalists from an Angolan and a foreign media organization were also robbed this year and their computers were stolen.
"For the Union of Angolan Journalists, the situation would probably be episodic, it would eventually be a less important situation if it weren't for the fact that, in March of this year, other journalists were robbed in the same circumstances and computers were taken from their homes", he stressed.
Teixeira Cândido pointed out that, in March, the journalist and director of the newspaper Expansão, João Armando, saw his house robbed at night, when he was sleeping, with the robbers taking two computers.
"Said colleague João Armando that he had other valuables in his office, he had jewelry, but the intention seemed to be just the two computers. Our colleague from Lusa, Raquel Rio, also saw her house robbed in March and her home they also took just the computer", he reported.
According to Teixeira Cândido, another MFM radio colleague, Romão de Jesus, after having received an anonymous phone call in which they made threats, was assaulted as he was leaving the newsroom for the bus stop and their computer was taken.
After the first robbery, Teixeira Cândido said he received a message asking if he had understood the warning he had been given.
"We are here in the presence of an act that obviously reflects a practice that cannot be a crime of opportunity, because the object is only the computer and only the journalists' house has been robbed", he underlined.
The secretary general of the SJA said that on Monday morning the SIC was at the union's headquarters, "but the management of the Union of Angolan Journalists understood that it will hold a repudiation march this Saturday a week ago to protest against anyone who be".
"Because we understand that our activity is legal, the exercise of unionism is in the Constitution and our activity is transparent, it is public, what we defend is freedom of the press, because without freedom of the press we do not exist as professionals. It is true that along with that, we defend dignified social conditions, but our fundamental scope, founding of our identity, which identifies us, is the freedom of the press", he observed.
Teixeira Cândido considered that union activity "is not easy", reporting the cases of other unionists, namely the doctors' unions and the supreme court, who suffered reprisals, situations that represent "the constraints that unionism is going through".
"For us there is no other reading, there are several colleagues suffering the same assault and I understand that yes, we are being attacked. I continue to keep faith in my colleagues who work in the union, until the investigation service tells us otherwise", he stressed.
