Africa-Press – Angola. The team of judges and prosecutors from the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, responsible for judging criminal case no. 38/2022, traveled yesterday to the Vida Pacífica urbanization, in the province of Icolo e Bengo, with the purpose of investigating the 24 buildings that were acquired by Sonangol from China International Fund (CIF) Angola, as well as the 22 buildings that the State, through that oil company, paid for their construction to the contractor China Guangxi.
In addition to the Judicial Magistrates and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the inspection visit was attended by Generals Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior “Kopelipa” and Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento “Dino”, lawyer Fernando Gomes dos Santos and Chinese citizen Yiu Haiming, as defendants, as well as their defense attorneys and the defense attorneys of the companies China International Found (CIF), Plansmart International Limited and Utter Right International Limited.
The visit, which also included the participation of technicians from the secretariat of the aforementioned court chamber, took place one day after it was revealed that SONIP, Sonangol’s real estate company, acquired 24 buildings from CIF to distribute to its employees.
The information is contained in written statements made by the former Chairman of Sonangol’s Board of Directors, Manuel Vicente, to the National Directorate of Investigation and Criminal Prosecution (DNIAP), a branch of the Attorney General’s Office, in August and November 2020. These statements were read out at a trial hearing this Tuesday, due to his absence from the country. During the visit, the legal professionals involved in the case learned which buildings were being constructed at the time the then President of the Republic, José Eduardo dos Santos, visited the site on October 16, 2008.
At that time, according to statements by General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior “Kopelipa”, former Minister of State and Chief of the Military Household of the then President of the Republic, a private housing project by CIF Angola was being built on the site.
The general gave a description of the state of the project at the time, taking into account that the company CIF was already constructing, in the same location, a range of more than 50 buildings (corresponding to 36,000 housing units) that would be part of a private housing project that would consist of 318 buildings.
Visitors also learned how the land where the project was being built was divided into two parts, after the government decided to build buildings to allow more nationals to live there. Thus, the side where the public buildings would be built was designated Zango Zero-1, while the other side was at a more advanced stage.
Contract between GRN and the construction company China Guangxi
It is worth noting that, during his interrogation in court, Kopelipa stated that the National Reconstruction Office (GRN), the agency he headed, did not enter into any contract with China International Foundation (CIF) for the construction of the aforementioned complex. The State, through this GRN, entered into a contract with the construction company China Guangxi International to construct 22 buildings in the development. Part of these amounts was initially paid by Sonangol EP itself on November 22, 2007, at a time when CIF was already constructing its “ambitious” housing project in the same location.
“The State did not pay for the construction of the 51 buildings because they were privately owned. The construction of the 22 public buildings was paid for by Sonangol,” emphasized the former Chief of the Military Household, noting that the construction of the other buildings in this central area was not negotiated by his office.
This information was contradicted by Manuel Vicente, who stated, in his statements read in court, that as CEO of Sonangol, he authorized SONIP to purchase 24 buildings from CIF and that he does not know whether GRN had entered into a contract with the Chinese for the construction of these 22 buildings, the payments for which were all made by Sonangol.
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