Cuito – Luanda could be divided into two provinces, one being the Coastal region, with the exception of Cacuaco, and another that will include the municipalities of Icolo e Bengo, Cacuaco, Viana and a part of Quissama.
The information was provided by the Minister of Territorial Administration (MAT), Dionísio da Fonseca, at the end of the official opening ceremony of the II MPLA Parliamentary Lectures, which take place in the city of Cuito, Bié province, until Friday.
The proposal to divide Luanda into two provinces comes from the MPLA Political Bureau, which recommended it to its parliamentary group to propose to the National Assembly, in light of discussions on the political-administrative reorganization of the country.
According to the minister, this is just a proposal, which should now be discussed with society and in Parliament, depending on of the National Assembly's specialty discussion calendar.
“Even the name of the province and its headquarters will be discussed with society, to seek to gather possible consensus, so that the proposal naturally reflects the desires of the population of Luanda”, highlighted the government official.
According to the minister, MAT will begin carrying out technical work “on the ground”, to clearly define the limits of each of the provinces, including the municipalities that must be integrated into one and the other, as well as in the preparation of maps and definition of geographic points.
In February of this year, Members of the Parliament (MP) had approved, in general, the Proposed Law on the Political-Administrative Division (DPA).
The Diploma provides for the creation of two new territorial units at provincial level, which will result from the division of the province of Moxico (becoming two: Moxico and Cassai-Zambeze) and Cuando Cubango (becoming two: provinces of Cuando and Cubango).
With the new Political-Administrative Division, Angola would be made up of 20 provinces, 325 municipalities and 375 communes.
The opening ceremony of the II Parliamentary Days in Bié, opened by the vice-president of the MPLA, Luísa Damião, was attended by the lecture by the Minister of State and Chief of Staff of the President of the Republic, Adão de Almeida, and the jurist Carlos Feijó,
who spoke, respectively, about the New Political-Administrative Division and Autarchies.
The event takes place under the motto: 'MPLA-Serve the People and Make Angola Grow' and aims to disseminate the Political Agenda of the MPLA-2024, train MP on issues of national political life, as well as establish contacts with institutions, civil society personalities and citizens.
Several topics are still being discussed, distributed in two panels:
In the first panel, parliamentarians are addressing 'Local Authorities and the Political and Administrative Organization of the State' and in the second, 'The MPLA as the guarantor of development'.
The MPs will also visit the nine municipalities of Bié, to maintain contact with the populations, as well as to inspect works or infrastructures erected within the scope of the Integrated Plan for the Intervention of Municipalities (PIIM). JEC/PLB/DOJ