LAWS
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Law no. 8/24, of July 3 (entered into force on the date of its publication) - Law to Combat Illegal Mining Activity. This law classifies illegal mining activities as a crime and punishes them with a prison sentence of 1 to 8 years and other penalties, including the promotion, facilitation, installation, assembly and start-up of activities, the transportation of mineral resources and equipment, the falsification of mining authorizations and titles, the fraudulent granting and obtaining of mining titles and authorizations, the receipt of mineral resources and material aid;
Law no. 9/24, of July 3 (entered into force on the date of its publication) - Law on Preventing and Combating Terrorism. This law made a number of changes to the Legal Framework for Preventing and Combating Terrorism approved by Law no. 19/17, of August 25, of which the following stand out:
a) Financial penalties, with the immediate, direct and unannounced freezing of all funds or economic resources belonging to, owned, held or controlled, directly or indirectly, individually or jointly, by the persons, groups and entities designated by the United Nations Sanctions Committee and the Angolan State, as well as by persons, groups or entities acting on behalf of, under the direction or control of the latter;
b) Restrictions on movement, now also applicable to exits from national territory;
c) The protection of the interests of third parties in good faith, whose acquired rights are no longer prejudiced by the freezing of offenders' assets; and
c) Travel to and from national territory with the aim of obtaining financial or other support, joining terrorist groups to carry out acts of terrorism, with those who organize such travel and/or finance or facilitate it also being punished.
Law no. 10/24, of July 3 (entered into force on the date of its publication) - Law on International Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters. This Law amends the Legal Framework for International Legal and Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters, approved by Law no. 13/15, of June 19, in order to ensure that the national legal system is in line with national and international standards and best practices in terms of institutional cooperation. The amendments concern articles 6, 8, 11, 12, 19, 31, 120, 146 and 159, of which we would like to highlight:
a) The amendment to article 6 on double punishability, which now stipulates that this will occur regardless of whether or not both countries classify the offence in the same category of offences or whether or not they attribute the same legal name to the offence, as long as the conduct is criminalized in both countries; and
b) The amendment of article 11 regarding the relevance of the offense, giving the competent authorities the autonomy to consider whether to accept a request for international cooperation, regardless of the relevance at national level, whenever the relevance and seriousness of the offense from the perspective of foreign and international law justifies granting the request.
Law no. 11/24, of July 4 (entered into force on the date of its publication) - Law on Preventing and Combating Money Laundering, the Financing of Terrorism and the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. This Law amends and conforms the Legal Framework for Preventing and Combating Money Laundering, the Financing of Terrorism and the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, approved by Law no. 5/20, of 27 January. These changes essentially concern articles 2, 5, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 26, 30, 31, 46, 50, 55, 58, 61, 73, 82 and 88. The changes made include
a) The addition of entities subject to this legal regime, namely entities that operate public mail services and service providers related to virtual assets;
b) The obligation for virtual asset providers to adopt measures to identify and diligence any clients with whom they establish business relations, as well as the correct storage of relevant information;
c) The obligation for entities subject to the Law to apply measures to mitigate the risks they identify, guaranteeing the risk assessment and the guidelines of the supervisory and inspection authorities.
Law no. 12/24, of 4 July (entered into force on the date of its publication) — Angolan Penal Code. This Law amends the Angolan Penal Code approved by Law no. 38/20, of 11 November, changes that essentially affect articles n.º 28, 39, 75, 122, 194, 197th, 281, 283, 284, 292, 304, 305, 358, 359, 360, 364, 391, 392, 401, 410, 435, 436, 445, 448, 449, 450, 459, 460, 464 and 465. Of the various changes, we highlight the new blood alcohol rate, with a driver who presents 1.2 grams of alcohol per liter of blood being considered drunk, as opposed to the previous 1 gram, and the driver is obliged to submit take the alcohol test whenever ordered, under penalty of incurring a crime of disobedience, therefore, the presumption of drunkenness in the case of refusal to carry out the test no longer exists.
PRESIDENTIAL DECREES
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
Presidential Decree no. 142/24, of July 2 (entered into force on the date of its publication) - the transformation of Banco de Desenvolvimento de Angola - E.P. to the form of a Public Limited Company with Exclusively Public Capital was approved, changing its name to “Banco de Desenvolvimento de Angola, S.A.”, and abbreviated to “BDA, S.A.” or “BDA” and to be governed by the Commercial Companies Law. Until the end of the respective contracts, the Angolan State shall maintain the same support and guarantee relationships with the financial institutions or other entities that signed contracts with BDA as it had prior to the transformation, and this Decree-Law may not be considered as a cause of change of circumstances or default for the purposes of the said contracts. The rights and benefits held by employees at the time of the transformation are also maintained;
Presidential Decree no. 145/24, of July 5 (entered into force on the date of its publication) - the National Agency for Cultural and Creative Industries was created as a result of the merger between the Angolan Film and Audiovisual Institute and the National Institute for Cultural and Creative Industries. This decree also approves its organic statute, which establishes as its mission to regulate, supervise and control cinematographic and audiovisual activity, the national policy for the promotion, support and development of cultural and creative industries and, in particular, books, records and handicrafts, the promotion of reading and the publishing of works whose nature proves to be of cultural interest and of great social reach;
Presidential Decree no. 146/24, of July 5 (entered into force on the date of its publication) - by this Decree the concession of block KON 19 was granted to the National Concessionaire the Mining Rights for Prospecting, Research, Development and Production of Liquid and Gaseous Hydrocarbons. The Production Sharing Contract signed between the National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency and the KON 19 Block Contractor Group, made up of ACREP - Exploração Petrolífera, S.A., Afentra Angola, Limited and ENAGOL - Energias de Angola, Limitada, is also approved;
Presidential Decree no. 147/24, of July 8 (entered into force on the date of its publication) - the amendment to the Privatization Programme for the 2023-2026 period was approved, adding the privatization of 49% of the State's shareholdings in Standard Bank Angola;
Presidential Decree no. 167/24, of July 18 (entered into force on the date of its publication) - This decree amends articles 5 and 17 of the Organic Statute of INAPEM - National Institute for the Support of Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. The previous wording of article 5 stipulated that oversight was the responsibility of the Head of the Executive Branch and was exercised by the Head of the Ministerial Department responsible for the Economy and Planning, and is now exercised by the Head of the Ministerial Department for Industry and Commerce. As a result, Article 17 on the appointment of the members of the Supervisory Board is also amended, and its members will be appointed by Joint Order of the heads of the Ministry of Public Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce;
Presidential Decree no. 152/24, of July 17 (will come into force on September 15) - this decree establishes the amount of the National Minimum Wage at Kz. 70,000.00 (seventy thousand Kwanzas), being automatically updated to Kz. 100,000.00 (one hundred thousand Kwanzas) after one year from the date of its entry into force. Meanwhile, for micro-enterprises and startups, the minimum wage is set at Kz. 50,000.00 (fifty thousand Kwanzas).
PRESIDENTIAL DISPATCHES
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
Presidential Order no. Presidential Order no. 143/24, of July 1 (entered into force on the day following the date of its publication) - The expense in the amount of USD 1,500,000.00 (one million five hundred thousand dollars of the United States of America), equivalent to Kz: 1 248 945 000.00 (one billion, two hundred and forty-eight million, nine hundred and forty-five thousand Kwanzas) was authorized and the opening of the Simplified Contracting Procedure was formalized, using the material criterion, for the Acquisition of Subscription and Support for the LENS Upstream Platform and Upstream Service (Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Canada) Fiscal Service Global (Worldwide) and Corporate Service;
Presidential Order no. 148/24, of 5 July (entered into force on the date of its publication) - the privatization of the shares representing 34% of the share capital of Standard Bank Angola, S.A. was authorized by Initial Public Offering (IPO). The privatization process must respect the corporate rights granted to the other shareholders, in accordance with the agreements signed for the exercise of pre-emptive rights over the shares representing 24% of the share capital. The Minister of Finance is hereby delegated the power to verify the validity and legality of all subsequent acts within the scope of the aforementioned procedure.
Comments