Politics is the road to self-enrichment
GLOBAL Spotlight
JOSEPH Kabila, like Mobutu Sese Seko before him, has used his position as president of the Democratic Republic of Congo to amass immense wealth for his family.
Unfortunately, democracy hasn’t changed the equation that political power has been the road to self-enrichment. As new political elites come to the fore, the race to fill their personal coffers has been accompanied by scant redistribution of wealth by government or investment in infrastructure, job creation or social services.
The story of Mobutu’s 30-year reign as military dictator of Africa’s most resource-rich country saw him amass a personal fortune estimated by various sources (including Transparency International) at $1bn (R13.5bn) to $5bn. Experts believe most of it was illicitly acquired from the nation’s coffers and stashed in Swiss banks.
Kabila has amassed his wealth somewhat differently. He and his family have established a vast business empire.according to a report recently released by the Congo Research Group, companies owned by the Kabila family are estimated to have generated revenue worth hundreds of millions of dollars since 2003, and relatives are believed to own assets worth tens of millions of dollars.
The extent of the empire has been meticulously documented, but the exact financial worth of Kabila himself is unclear, thanks to a lack of transparency in his declaration of assets, as well as those of his sister Jaynet and brother Zoe, both members of parliament.
But it was Joseph’s father, Laurent, who started creating a business empire when he ousted Mobutu from office in a military coup in 1997.
Laurent Kabila’s rise to political power proved to be a rags-to-riches story. The Kabila family had been living covertly in Tanzania since the 1970s under assumed names as they were wanted by Mobutu, and their lifestyle had been austere. siblings were involved in the diamond industry.
In a relatively short time, the Kabila family amassed significant wealth and their proximity to the president seemed to enable them to enjoy advantages.
The family owned the Acacia and Kwango Mines and obtained nearly 100 exploration permits along the DRC’S diamond-rich border with Angola. They allegedly used the president’s Republican Guard to protect some of the mining sites.
As the price of diamonds fell, and the prices of copper and cobalt increased, the focus of the Kabila business empire changed. The family ended up controlling three copper and cobalt sites, where the workers were not given formal employment contracts or social protection.
According to the Congo Research Group, Jaynet got more mining permits from the Ministry of Mines than was allowed under the mining code. Tax payments for many of the mining permits linked to the family were also suspended.
As for Joseph Kabila, he has declared his assets to the judiciary as required by the constitution, but this has not been made public.
Today the Kabila family partly or wholly owns 80 companies and Joseph Kabila and his children own 71000ha of farmland. The family’s companies have benefited from government contracts and from contracts with the World Bank and US Overseas Public Investment Corporation.
The hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue generated since 2003 is a far cry from the family’s financial position just two decades ago when they lived in Tanzania.
It is no wonder Kabila refused to step down as president as required by the constitution in December 2016. The longer he holds on to power, the more instability the DRC faces, but the challenge remains that whoever takes over is likely to belong to the ranks of the political elite and will probably continue the trend of amassing a personal fortune.