KABILA DISMISSES MINISTER OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000844

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/17/2010
TAGS: PGOV ENRG EMIN KDEM CG
SUBJECT: KABILA DISMISSES MINISTER OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

REF: A. KINSHASA 798

B. KINSHASA 282

Classified By: PolCouns DBrown, reasons 1.4 b/d


1. (C) Summary. President Kabila fired Minister Sylvanus
Mushi July 12 for "improper conduct." Speculation as to the
reason for the action has centered on corruption. Kinshasa
newspapers have focused on dealings involving a company owned
by Mushi's family and OFIDA, the state customs and excise
office. Mushi has denied any improprieties in the case, and
has alleged influence-peddling by the head of the customs
office. Mushi's past would make him an easy target for
investigation, and the government's failure to bring charges
is curious. End summary.


2. (U) Minister of Scientific Research Sylvanus Mushi Bonane
was dismissed by order of President Kabila July 12. The
precise grounds for his dismissal remain unknown, although
excerpts of the decree published in the Kinshasa press
include language such as "harming the credibility of the
government" and "improper conduct" regarding implementation
of a court decision involving a corporation called Estagri
SPRL (controlled by members of Mushi's family),the Customs
and Excise Office OFIDA, and Citigroup. Kinshasa newspapers
are speculating that Mushi was dismissed for corruption. The
pro-Kabila Kinshasa daily L'Avenir trumpeted Mushi's firing
as a triumph for good government.


3. (U) The news was announced at 8 p.m. July 12 on the
government network RTNC. Mushi told us July 14 it had taken
him by surprise. He said he had been informed by Kabila's
chief of staff Raymond Tshibanda at 5 p.m. on the 12th, but
had had no prior discussion of the matter with either Kabila
or Prime Minister Gizenga.


4. (U) Senior Gizenga adviser Minister Godefroid Mayobo
claimed in a July 13 interview with Radio Okapi that Estagri
had taken USD 700,000 from OFIDA while Mushi was minister.
The independent daily La Reference Plus, citing anonymous
sources, claimed in its July 13 edition that Estagri, had
pocketed some USD 600-800,000 from a contract for services it
had failed to fully provide to OFIDA. The National Assembly
voted July 16 to create a commission of inquiry into the
affair.


5. (C) Mushi, a lawyer and former police inspector from
South Kivu, denied these charges in an interview he requested
with PolCouns July 14. He claimed that OFIDA and Citigroup,
where OFIDA maintains an account, had been ordered to pay
Estagri as the result of a legal judgment. He said he was
Estagri's lawyer, not its owner, although he and members of
his family own shares in the firm, which was formed in 1958
as a family enterprise and converted to a private corporation
in 1993. He said the case pre-dated his nomination as
minister. He presented a copy of a letter dated April 6,
2007 to the finance minister in which another lawyer
representing Estagri complained that a Kinshasa court had
ordered OFIDA to pay Estagri USD 654, 076 plus damages and
accumulated interest in a decision of February 14, 2005, but
it had failed to do so. Mushi said the case was initially
filed in 2002; the document claims OFIDA owed Estagri nearly
USD 1.4m at time of the decision.


6. (C) Mushi did not say so directly, but his comments
indicate Estagri may have subsequently received at least some
of the funds it was owed. He said Gizenga had ordered a
review of the case by the justice minister, who determined
that a certain sum was owed to OFIDA, which Mushi said was
then paid.


7. (C) Mushi also said Kabila chief of staff Raymond
Tshibanda called him regarding the case June 21 at the office

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of the public lands minister. Mushi said Tshibanda told him
to return money from Estagri to OFIDA. At one point in the
conversation with PolCouns, Mushi claimed that Tshibanda had
referred only to the sum cited by the minister of justice.
At another point, he said he replied that as its lawyer he
had no power to force the company to return funds to OFIDA,
and indicated that Tshibanda's request was improper under
article 151 of the constitution, which forbids involvement of
the executive or legislative branches in the determination or
implementation of judicial decisions. Mushi said Tshibanda
replied, "Je prends acte" ("So noted"). Four days later,
Mushi was the subject of a long and laudatory article on his
tenure as minister on digitalcongo.com, a news site owned by
the Kabila family.

KINSHASA 00000844 002 OF 002




8. (C) Mushi presented a copy of a letter to Kabila dated
July 16, 2006 in which Mushi alleged that obstruction by the
Presidency had prevented Estagri from gaining access to the
funds owed to it in the case. The letter also cites article

151. Mushi said he had subsequently received a letter from
Leonard She Okitundu, Kabila's chief of staff at the time,
telling him there was nothing he could do. Mushi alleged
that the source of the obstruction was the head of OFIDA, Deo
Rugwisa. He claimed July 14 that Rugwisa, whom he asserted
is in fact Rwandan, was the father of a longtime mistress of
Joseph Kabila. He alleged Rugwisa had appealed to Kabila to
annul the court decision in favor of Estagri, but Kabila
could not do so because of the constitutional restrictions.


9. (SBU) No charges have been brought against Mushi, nor --
unlike the treason investigation targeting Jean-Pierre Bemba
-- has the government made statements that he is under
investigation. However, Mushi said Mayobo had told him he
probably could not leave the country. He has kept a
relatively low profile since his dismissal and the
international press appears to have taken little interest in
the affair.


10. (C) A phone interview with Agence France-Presse during
his meeting with PolCouns may be Mushi's only public
statement on the matter to date. He denied the charges in
the OFIDA case; said they had nothing to do with his conduct
as minister; and said his work for it involved no illegal
activities. He did not, however, make the allegation of
influence-peddling against Rugwisa.


11. (C) Mushi told us he had last seen Gizenga July 10, when
he signed travel orders for Mushi to travel to London for a
ceremony to commemorate a just-concluded framework agreement
for a joint venture between the government and the UK firm
Brinkley Mining on uranium and fissionable materials.
Unnamed sources in the La Reference Plus account alleged a
link between Mushi's dismissal and his decision to annul a
2006 uranium mining agreement with two entities which may or
may not have been associated with Brinkley (ref B). We will
examine this issue septel.


12. (C) Comment. Mushi is no angel, and would be an easy
target for anyone who cared to investigate his past.
However, Kabila and his government opted for innuendo and
unsubstantiated allegations rather than pressing charges. We
are not in a position to judge the merits of the OFIDA case,
but a day in court for the government and Mushi would go a
long way toward dispelling questions it has raised. It will
be interesting to see how the National Assembly commission,
essentially a political body, chooses to approach the issue.
End comment.
MEECE