Augustin Matata Ponyo was expected on Monday August 21 for the opening of his trial before the Constitutional Court of Kinshasa. But the former Prime Minister – from 2012 to 2016 – known for his red tie did not leave the city of Kindu (East), his political and electoral stronghold, which he made his headquarters for two months in view of the presidential.
“Mr. Matata Ponyo has not received any document from the Constitutional Court. We learned of his summons via social networks, “explains Emile Assani, national secretary of Leadership and Governance for Development (LGD), the opponent’s political party to justify this absence. Mr. Matata Ponyo, who has always claimed that he was “not afraid of anything”, was represented by his lawyers at the hearing which will be broadcast on national television.
It has been three years since the former head of government of Joseph Kabila has claimed his innocence in this state affair. Since November 2020, he has been accused of being “the intellectual author” of the embezzlement of more than 205 million of the 285 million dollars released by the Public Treasury for the Bukanga-Lonzo agro-industrial park project. The 75,000-hectare farm, located some 220 kilometers east of the Congolese capital, was to be a model project of the Kabila era, a significant step in the DRC’s food self-sufficiency.
This agro-industrial park was to allow, in its trial phase, the inhabitants of the Kinshasa megalopolis to buy foodstuffs at an affordable price. But the project fizzled and, nine years after its launch, it is now one of the emblematic cases of embezzlement of public funds in the country.
“The trial is not judicial but political”
Since its revelation by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF), the case has been lost in legal meanders. A first trial opened in May 2021 before the Constitutional Court, which then declared itself incompetent to try a former prime minister. She had referred the case to the Court of Cassation, before it returned it to her in April. For these new hearings, the file has changed. Former ministers Wivine Mumba and Patrice Kitebi are no longer being prosecuted.
But the former governor of the Central Bank, Deogratias Mutombo, is expected to take the helm for his responsibility in disbursing the funds. Christo Grobler, the South African businessman, managing director of Africom, the company managing the Bukanga-Lonzo agro-industrial park, is still in the file.
For Emile Assani, “the trial is not judicial but political”. Augustin Matata Ponyo says he is “victim of relentlessness” because of his refusal to join the Sacred Union, the coalition of political parties supporting President Felix Tshisekedi’s candidacy for re-election. “The power has sent emissaries three times to ask us to join the Sacred Union and offer us the post of Prime Minister. But Mr. Matata Ponyo does not want to govern with a regime whose mode of management is characterized by corruption and the embezzlement of public funds, ”argues the relative of the opponent. The conviction of the former prime minister, who does not hide his dream of winning on December 20, in this case, would make him ineligible for the presidency of the Republic.
