Luanda- The Head of State, João Lourenço, on Thursday in Luanda condemned the vandalisation of public property, stressing that it should be protected by everyone.
On his Facebook page, the President of the Republic wrote that “nothing justifies the destruction of public property”, adding that “we must firmly discourage all practices that contribute to the destruction of property that belongs to all of us as a society”.
Acts of vandalism to public goods and services are causing huge losses to the state, especially with regard to the withdrawal of services to which citizens already had access, such as the supply of water and electricity.
As a measure to combat it, the government has decided to criminalise these acts with prison sentences of between 5 and 10 years, given the high level of damage caused to the state and the risk to the sustainability of public investment made to meet collective needs.
The draft law aimed at penalising these practices was recently considered by the Council of Ministers for submission to the National Assembly.
Called the “Law on Crimes of Vandalism of Public Goods and Services”, the law constitutes a specialised legal framework for combating vandalism of public goods and services, thus optimising the existing legal treatment, as well as bringing the current system into line with the changing needs of preventing and repressing vandalism of public goods and services.
The main motive for this Bill is linked to the fact that in recent times, it is seen an increasing number of acts of vandalisation and destruction of public goods and services, with emphasis on infrastructures in the energy, water, transport, telecommunications, health and education sectors, which are thus prevented from serving citizens to the desired extent and fulfilling the main purpose for which they were implemented.
The legislative provisions in force, despite providing for some protection mechanisms, have been insufficient to deal with the phenomenon correctly. This bill therefore introduces a new vision into the process of predicting criminal offences and sanctioning the main offenders.
The “Law on Crimes of Vandalism of Public Goods and Services” will bring, in terms of novelties, an approach to the entire circuit of the process of committing the crime, which will involve punishing any citizen who directly commits the crime, instigates, finances or sponsors such actions, as well as those who buy public goods resulting from the commission of the crime of vandalisation and destruction or subtraction of public property.
From this perspective, the law provides for offences such as “Destruction of Public Property”, “Damage to Public Property”, “Attack on the Security of Public Property”, “Subtraction of Public Property”, “Reception of Public Property”, which means the purchase of property resulting from the commission of this crime.
The bill provides for more serious penalties for public service managers, members of the defence and security agencies, employment and public agents, authorities or employees of public service concession companies, if their participation in the case is proven.
For foreign citizens involved in this type of crime, the law provides, in addition to the prison sentence, for expulsion from national territory, an act to be carried out after the sentence has been served.
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