RULING PARTY SLAMS VANDALISM TO AGOSTINHO NETO STATUE

 Angola’s ruling MPLA party’s Politburo Friday in Luanda strongly condemned the vandalism and insult committed by some youths to the statue of the first Angolan President, Agostinho Neto, at 1º de Maio Square, in Luanda.

In a note that reached Angop, the ruling MPLA party says the humanist and intellectual dimension of Agostinho Neto, local and internationally recognised, must be respected by all Angolans.

“Agostinho Neto is the highest reference of the modern Angolan nationalism and of the national liberation movement and an undeniable landmark of our journey towards the construction of an independent, united, developed, democratic and inclusive Angola, the reason why MPLA expresses total repudiation of the vile and infamous behaviour adopted against the Angolans’ collective memory,” the note reads.

To MPLA, the expressive expansion of the spaces of freedom of expression of opinion and political manifestation promoted by the Executive should not serve to cover up acts that disrespect the national symbols and endangers the political stability and reconciliation among Angolans.

The ruling party also warns the organisers and instigators of this kind of anti-social attitudes and behaviours for the consequences of their acts within the limits of the Constitution and the law.

MPLA urges the authorities concerned to take measures to hold criminally responsible the authors of the acts that insult the figure of the National Hero, and exhorts the Angolan youth not to let being instrumentalised by the enemies of peace, reconciliation and national unity.

In its note, the party recommends the youths that while exercising their free and sovereign right to demonstrate, they should abide by a responsible citizenship based on the respect for the difference and political tolerance, by calling on the living forces of the society to work together in the construction  of a developed, democratic and inclusive Angola.

The demonstration, the third staged in Angola’s capital between November and December, started at Santa Ana cemetery, down to 1º de Maio Square.