29 September 2005
The DR Congo government has been confronted with an unprecedented wave of strikes amidst news of fresh scandals and mismanagement. In particular the recent delivery of 620 new Nissan four-wheel drive vehicles for the MPs and the senators of the transitional parliament, purchased at a cost of US$22,000 each, representing a total bill of $13.64 million, has provoked bitter comments and indignation in local newspapers.
As a delegation of MPs led by the National Assembly chairman Olivier Kamitatu left for the port of Boma in Bas-Congo province to take possession of the cars, the 'Phare' daily wrote that the timing of the delivery in the current climate of strikes and salary claims by civil servants and teachers could "not have been worse".
The MPs and the senators have retorted that the money did not come from the state budget but from their own pockets and more particularly from a monthly contribution of $500, but 'Le Potentiel' daily noted that whichever way they were paid for, the SUVs were purchased with taxpayers' money.
A week earlier the Kinshasa paper 'Le Soft' revealed a new scandal at the Congolese Central Bank (CCB). According to its report, about $3.3m has disappeared and it mentions a million-dollar transfer from the CCB's account at Citibank to a bank account somewhat maliciously described as that of the Independent Electoral Commission. Other transfers though the BCDC, the BIAC, the BIC and Rawbank are also mentioned.
In October last year $500,000 in cash also disappeared from the CCB coffers.
The finance ministry that reportedly discovered the scam said there was complicity in some of these banks but also within the tax administration department.
One central bank director, two deputy directors and three other staff members were arrested, reported 'Le Soft', which stressed the need to recover credibility for the DRC's central bank among international financial institutions.
This news contributed to the anger of civil servants whose unions launched a strike on September 15 for higher wages, ranging between $208 for junior staff and $2,080 for those at the senior level.
This measure, which was agreed in February 2004 by the government, has not been implemented. Neither were government commitments concerning allowances about social security, medical costs, compensation and the payment of the arrears of civil servants whose wage bills were lost during a census last April organized with the logistical support of South African experts.
As a result, most public administration remained paralysed during the month of September. This also hit schools and universities.
The vice-president in charge of political affairs and security, Azarias Ruberwa, admitted in a public meeting that the transitional government had not honoured its commitments.
Anger has also spread to the health sector, whose unions expressed solidarity with the teachers in a strike and a sit-in in front of the presidential buildings on September 16.
Primary and secondary school students, unable to attend classes since the beginning of the month, demonstrated in the Kinshasa streets and on September 12 marched from different sectors of the capital to the office buildings of the vice-president for economic affairs, Jean-Pierre Bemba.
They also called on the government to pay their teachers.
The general feeling is that the government was not caught by surprise. The first threats of action by the teachers' unions were made in June, but it seems that a decision by the Roman Catholic church and by the government to prohibit direct payments to the teachers by the parents, but without replacing them with salaries, sparked the protest.
Union leader arrested
In face of the protests the government has tried to intimidate the trade unions and ordered the arrest of the leader of the civil servants' union, Romain Mutu Moyi Tamundele, who was jailed in the Makala prison in Kinshasa.
There were also attempts to divide the teachers' unions, but these tactics are proving counterproductive. Civil service union leader Muty Moyi has now become a hero and the action has tended to radicalize his followers, commented 'Le Phare', which accused the government of lack of good faith.
The authorities have responded that they cannot afford to satisfy the unions' demands because of budgetary constraints, with the protesters retorting that the government should have raised this problem in February instead of making commitments it could not respect.
In the midst of this crisis of confidence the media is calling for the government to put an end to the "paradisical way of life" of political leaders that was endorsed by parliament in the 2005 budget. This has given the presidency a $17m annual package supposed to finance a list of obscure funds - such as the 'office intervention special fund' or the 'cabinet intervention special fund'.
Three papers closed
Meanwhile the National Union of the Congolese Press (UNPC) has accused the High Authority of the Media (HAM), set up under the transitional constitution, of violating its own principles by ordering the temporary closure of three Kinshasa papers.
All three, the 'Pool Malebo' and 'L'Ouragan' weeklies and the tri-weekly 'Le Journal' were suspended for three months by the HAM on libel charges.
'Pool Malebo' published in its September 15 issue a front page story claiming a $30m gift had been made by President Joseph Kabila to Tanzanian Roman Catholic schools at a time when Congolese school were paralysed by the teachers strike.
The HAM justified its decision by calling the report "sensationalist", that there was no evidence to support the allegations and that the story damaged the reputation of the transitional authorities.
Indeed, the 'Pool Malebo' report appears not to be supported by hard evidence, and the chairman of the Roman Catholic Bishops Conference, Mgr Laurent Monsengwo, who had been quoted as a source, denied he had supplied the information.
But for UNPC, that was not the point and it suggested that the HAM had probably acted under political pressure.
Other organisations such as 'Journalistes en danger' (JED) and the 'Congolese Media Observatory', set up by Congolese journalists to arbitrate on similar cases, also condemned the HAM's decision. The measure was also condemned by the 'National Observatory of Elections' set up by civil society organisations.
The JED website mentions 12 cases of arbitrary arrest of journalists as well as death threats and injuries by the military or the police.
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