*Fyi - Speaking of "Shit Happening" Nells, I see where,
Chinese contract: "everything is provided for in the agreement with regard to rebalancing", Jules Alingete
It is since Wednesday March 22, 2023 that the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the group of Chinese companies formed by China Airways Corporation and Synohydro began the process of revisiting the said contract signed on April 22, 2008 in the aim of rebalancing the interests between the two parties.
Present at this work following the publication of the report of the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF), which denounces the imbalances in the execution of the Chinese contract, Jules Alingete, Inspector General and Head of Department of the IGF, indicated that this procedure has already been provided for by the signatory of the said contract.
According to him, this procedure is not something new.
Because, he says, the signatories of the convention had already planned a revisitation if one of the parties considered it necessary.
"There is first of all the determination of the President of the Republic, Félix Tshisekedi, expressed many times and the last time he made it known during the last weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers.
In view of the elements of the imbalances observed, the Congolese side is now examining and deepening, we must arrive at a revisitation.
And then it's not something new.
The convention itself has provided for a revisitation when one or the other party feels that there are things that need to be changed said Alingete.
It should be noted that this working session between the Congolese and Chinese parties was chaired by the Chief of Staff of the President of the Republic, Guylain Nyembo Mbwizya.
Several members of the Congolese Government took part in these talks, in particular the Minister of Infrastructure and Public Works, the Minister of Justice and the Deputy Minister of the Budget.
After a first day of work devoted to the presentation of the report of the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) and the defense of the Chinese side, the two parties will continue discussions within a commission.
This commission's mission is to shed enough light to allow the Democratic Republic of Congo to return to its most legitimate rights.
During the last weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers, held on Friday, March 17, 2023, the President of the Republic, Félix Tshisekedi took a position in favor of revisiting this contract to restore the balance between the two parties.
The President of the Republic had motivated this decision following cases of non-compliance with the provisions of the contract, non-performance of contractual commitments and subjectivity in certain acts taken by the parties.
In his communication to the members of the Government, Félix Tshisekedi dwelled on the worrying nature of this situation which he describes as deplorable both on the one hand for the development of the mining sector which is to date the engine that drives growth economy of the DRC and on the other hand, by the slowness of the dynamism which should normally know the program of construction of the infrastructures which the DRC badly needs for the hatching of its potential as well human as economic.
This issue has not gone unnoticed in the House of People's Representatives.
On Tuesday, March 21, 2023, during the plenary devoted to the adoption of the calendar for the March 2023 session, the President of the National Assembly, Christophe Mboso, announced that his institution will very soon look into this convention of cooperation.
“It should be noted that during this session, contracts signed between the Congolese State and certain partners will be subject to parliamentary control such as the Chinese contract and many others.
I wanted you to remember this, that in the days to come we are going to invest ourselves because this bad governance is depriving the Congolese State of the revenue essential for development,” said Christophe Mboso. “recalled Jules Alingete.
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Sama II: “We take the same ones and start over.
There will be nothing.
Hopes will continue to be disappointed…” (Tribune)!
We take the same and start again .
There will be nothing.
Hopes will continue to be dashed.
Even in the event that we would have changed all the members of the government, with the same weight, the Congolese would not find themselves: Fatshism remaining, the same causes will produce the same effects.
Besides, if we are serious and want the country to move forward, we cannot agree to appear with a government like this.
It would be mortgaging his political future and that of the country.
But in the DRC, the politics of the belly (J F Bayart) is the matrix.
The time to serve having come, few Congolese are able to reject a ministerial offer.
Neither the ideology nor the context, even less the rationality or the general interest interests the Congolese.
Industry of Africans (R Dumont, G Balandier etc), politics produces millionaires in an ocean of impunity.
Especially if you can't do it elsewhere.
Politics becomes a profession.
To deprive yourself of it is to escape honors and riches in Africa.
It has nothing to do with order and justice in the City in the noble sense seen by Aristotle.
This is the dysfunctional deviation.
To achieve this, it is necessary to change, at the same time, the actors and the spirit.
As long as the Congolese or African spirit remains, we can change the men or the driver, but we will always have to do with the same train or truck (Mungulu Diaka).
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Jean-Marc Kabund, alongside Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi, constituted a shield, to the point that many people thought twice before approaching the moral authority of the UDPS.
We feared the arrogance and the truthful side of Kabund who still did not have his tongue in his pocket to reframe or spit the truth in his rawness.
The departure of Kabund leaves a great boulevard which has brought to the presidential seraglio undertakers who have led Fatshi's predecessors to the grave.
Those who had accompanied Mobutu to the tomb of exile in Morocco had not finished organizing his mourning when they quickly joined the Kabila camp.
These include, among others, Lambert Mende, Alain Atundu, Kin-Kiey Mulumba, Evariste Mabi Mulumba, Christophe Mboso.
Today, Kabila has not yet said his last word on the political scene, but hastened to bury him alive to quickly join the side of the advantages, that of Felix Tshisekedi.
The Kabilist undertakers, after 18 years of cohabitation with Raïs Joseph Kabila, did not even wait for the end of his successor's first term to jump out of the boat.
They pushed the FCC ship adrift in which Kabila and his wife Marie-Olive Lembe boarded, without the slightest remorse.
Among these undertakers are recruited Evariste Boshab, Adolphe Lumanu, She Okitundu, Charles Okoto, Adrien Bokele, Jean-Pierre Lihau, Willy Bakonga, Didi Manara, François Rubota, Bahati Lukwebo, etc.
A common trait unites them all: they are fearless, as the average Kinshasa man says "Courage ya bana boudin".
After their crossing, they bring the same recipe: "It is we who have made Mobutu stay in power for 32 years or it is our strategies that have made Kabila reign for 18 years in the DRC".
Fasthi Béton is called upon to be vigilant, because these undertakers have sadly accompanied all his predecessors to the political grave, but do not offer any alternative to longevity in power, as the ANC does so well in South Africa in power since 1994.
Moreover, they do not even go to visit the widow and the children of the one who fed them for a long time, that is to say three decades.
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*Things that make you go Hmm
Food for thought
Fingers crossed
Frank
*Keep digging / denying and doing us a favour by denouncing the IGF Report Jing
Zhu Jing: “profits from mining are still very far from the 4 billion dollars invested by Chinese companies”
The report of the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) on the "infrastructure against mines" contract, signed in 2008 between the government and the group of Chinese companies, is still in the news.
While the IGF points to a glaring imbalance in this convention, the Chinese side denies everything.
According to the Chinese ambassador to the DRC, Zhu Jing, the IGF report does not correspond to reality, is not credible and also suffers, according to him, from the absence of "solid evidence".
During a press conference organized on Friday March 24 in Kinshasa, the Chinese ambassador indicated that, contrary to the report of the IGF, the profits drawn, until then, from the mining exploitation are still very far of the 4 billion dollars invested by Chinese companies.
For Zhu Jing, Chinese companies have not yet started to profit from mining, 15 years after the entry into force of the agreement signed with the Congolese government.
“With this reality, can we still say that Sicomines is a predatory company that earns a lot of money, without giving any benefit to our Congolese friends? he wondered.
For his part, Diao Ying, secretary of the board of directors of Sicomines, said that of the 10 million reserves estimated in the Sicomines project, at the current stage, only 10% of the deposits have already been exploited, against 30% infrastructure investments.
“So far, we have exploited 10% of the estimated deposits, but we have already invested around 30 million in infrastructure.
How can you say that people came here to take money, ”she reacted to the accusations from the IGF.
Regarding the overcharging of infrastructures, the Chinese side recalled that the role of Sicomines is limited to financing the projects selected and presented by the Congolese government.
“It is the ACGT which monitors and organizes the work.
She is in a better position to answer this question.
All projects and all costs of infrastructure projects are decided by the Congolese government,” said Diao Ying.
Dialogue with the Congolese side
While more and more voices are rising to demand the revision of what the World Bank has called a "one-sided contract", the Chinese side has affirmed that it has not yet been notified in this sense, so official.
However, she said, she remains open to any dialogue, supported the Chinese ambassador to the DRC, Zhu Jing, while recalling that the convention itself provides for discussion mechanisms.
In addition, the Chinese side has promised to communicate, in the near future, its figures which contradict those presented by the General Inspectorate of Finance.
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Tshisekedi builds a tailor-made team to go to the elections
Bemba, Kamerhe and Mbusa Nyamwisi join Prime Minister Lokonde's team.
"The elephants have agreed to settle down to go to the manger", explains, without bluntness, an observer of Congolese political life who says he is "little surprised" by these entries into the government of Vital Kamerhe, Jean-Pierre Bemba or even Antipas Mbusa Nyamwesi.
Three men, three heavyweights, three provinces who should (or let believe that they could) bring back a bunch of votes to the outgoing president in view of the presidential election still announced for December 20 next despite the repeated hiccups in voter registration still underway in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Jean-Pierre Bemba takes over National Defence, Vital Kamerhe the Economy portfolio and Mbusa Nyamwesi that of Regional Integration.
The three men know the head of state well, they were together in 2018 when the Congolese opposition thought they could speak with one voice against Joseph Kabila's foal... until November 12 of that year, the next day the appointment in Geneva by this quartet, flanked by Moïse Katumbi, Adolphe Muzito and Freddy Matungulu, of Martin Fayulu as the sole opposition candidate.
A single candidate who was only there for 24 hours, the time for the Tshisekedi – Kamerhe tandem to renounce its commitment and set off as a duo to conquer the presidency.
A dubious bet which will however allow Felix Tshisekedi to settle at the head of the State, at the end of an electoral agreement which will not worry about the vote of the voters.
(We are still awaiting the publication of the first electoral P.V. of this election).
A little more than four years after this electoral hold-up, Corneille Nanga, former president of the Independent National Electoral Commission (Ceni), great organizer of this election and main architect of this deception, now a presidential candidate, publicly admitted that It was an “electoral agreement” and not a victory obtained at the ballot box.
Sharing the second term cake
Jean-Pierre Bemba like Vital Kamerhe would have seen each other well in the post of Prime Minister.
But Félix Tshisekedi, as a licensed puppeteer, managed not to decide.
They will both be Deputy Prime Minister.
Sama Lokonde is back at the head of the executive.
A lesser evil for the presidency which can thus claim to keep a Katangese (the richest province, that of Kabila and his main opponent Moïse Katumbi) at the head of the government.
A Prime Minister already very happy to keep his folding seat, which will not overshadow these newcomers for the home stretch of this term of office which should end in nine months.
The cohabitation between these heavyweights will not necessarily be obvious, but by agreeing to join this team, "they have shown, to use a footballing image, that they really need playing time to agree to get on the field without have the captain's armband", continues our observer who, like several other witnesses, points to the position attributed to Vital Kamerhe.
Kabila's former ally, who entered the opposition before becoming Tshisekedi's partner, was indeed sentenced to 20 years in prison at first instance (reduced to 16 years on appeal, before the judgment was quashed) for embezzlement of public funds.
“If it is with poachers that we make the best game wardens, the Congolese economy will be an example,” laughs a diplomat.
President Félix Tshisekedi's troops are now in battle order for the presidential election.
The Head of State has secured the services of Jean-Pierre Bemba, a voice maker in Greater Equateur, he has in his pocket the two strong men of South Kivu, Vital Kamerhe and Modeste Bahati, the President of the Senate, and in North Kivu, he can count on Mbusa Nyamwesi and Julien Paluku (who retains the Ministry of Industry).
In a one-round ballot, with a stranglehold on the Ceni and the Constitutional Court, remembering the 2018 scenario, this new organization chart should allow the power to consider extending its lease as head of state.
Opposition forced to respond
The Kasaï, family land of Tshisekedi being acquired, the structure put in place allows itself to snub somewhat Grand-Bandundu and Maniema lands of Matin Fayulu and Matata Ponyo, but also Katanga where the power hopes to attenuate the weight of Moïse Katumbi thanks to the presence and the massive registration… of Kasaians who have migrated to this province.
Faced with this presidential machine, these opponents must quickly be able to provide an answer by managing to unite and put forward a name.
It remains to be seen what role the Catholic Church, exhausted by the presidency of Tshisekedi, can (will) play.
The same question arises for former President Joseph Kabila, inaudible so far.
The man from Kingakati must be smiling in his beard when he discovers that the members of his political family who have abandoned him lately (Mende, Boshab, etc.) have not found a place in the presidential cast.
Vital Kamerhe to the National Economy, here are the challenges that await him
Vital Kamerhe, President of the political party Union for the Congolese Nation, was appointed, by presidential order, this Friday, March 24, 2023, to the post of Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of National Economy within the reshuffled Government of Prime Minister, Sama Lukonde.
Thus, the former Chief of Staff of the President of the Republic returns to business after more than two years of a dark period marked by the 100 day trial in which he was accused of embezzlement of several million US dollars intended for the works of infrastructure before being acquitted.
This heavyweight of Congolese politics joins a sector of the national economy in full storm due in particular to the effects of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis at the international level but also to the general increase in prices on the national markets of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The new Minister of the National Economy will have to quickly renew the link between the private and public sectors, which are increasingly at odds when they are supposed to speak the language.
Vital Kamerhe will have to work to obtain price stability for basic necessities on the markets of the Democratic Republic of Congo, but also to ensure compliance with the rules in this area.
Continuing the reforms already started should also be one of the projects of the former President of the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Vital Kamerhe will also have to keep an eye on the macroeconomic framework to clearly understand the performance of the economy and the evolution of production, inflation and the balance of payments.
To date, the Ministry of National Economy is headed by the current Minister of Finance, Nicolas Kazadi, who is acting after the dismissal of incumbent Jean-Marie Kalumba by the Congolese Parliament.
Jean-Marie Kalumba was deemed unable to regulate the soaring prices of basic products which have shaken the country for several months.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has nearly twenty-seven million people in a situation of acute food insecurity.
The medium-term outlook for the DRC is favourable, with estimates calling for growth of 6.4% in 2023.
However, the Congolese economy remains vulnerable to fluctuations in commodity prices and the performance of its main trading partners, thus exposing itself to disruptions linked to geopolitical conflicts and the resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The economic consequences of the war in Ukraine, through the global rise in food and oil prices, could put greater pressure on the budget deficit, inflation and household consumption, thus exacerbating poverty and inequality.
Given the ongoing conflicts in the East, the immediate challenge for the DRC is to strengthen security and maintain political and macroeconomic stability while scaling up ongoing reforms to ensure sustainable growth.
The DRC ranks 164th out of 174 countries on the 2020 Human Capital Index, a consequence of decades of conflict, fragility and thwarted development.
The DRC's human capital index stands at 0.37, below the average for sub-Saharan African countries (0.40).
This means that a Congolese child born today can only hope to achieve 37% of their potential, compared to what would have been possible if they had benefited from a complete and quality education, and optimal health conditions. .
The main factors behind this poor score are the low survival rate of children under five, the high rate of stunting of children and the poor quality of education.
The stunting rate in the DRC (42% of children under five) is one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa and malnutrition is the underlying cause of almost half of the deaths of children from less than five years and unlike other African countries, the prevalence of stunting in the country has not decreased over the past twenty years.
Due to a very high fertility rate, the number of stunted children has increased to 1.5 million.
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Food for thought
Frank
