Augustin Matata Ponyo, former Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was sentenced on Tuesday to 10 years of forced labour by the Constitutional Court for embezzling $245 million in public funds intended for a major agricultural development project. The ruling also bans him from holding public office for five years after completing his sentence. Deogratias Mutombo, former Governor of the Central Bank, was also convicted and sentenced to five years of forced labour in the same case. He has not yet publicly responded to the ruling.
The case centers on the Bukanga-Lonzo Agro-Industrial Park, launched in 2014 as one of Africa’s largest agricultural investments, meant to combat DRC’s chronic food insecurity and create up to 22,000 jobs. Instead, the project collapsed amid allegations of large-scale corruption and mismanagement. The project, backed in part by the African Development Bank, was intended to boost domestic food production in a country where 28 million people currently face acute food insecurity, exacerbated by decades of conflict and economic instability.
Matata, who served as Prime Minister from 2012 to 2016 under former President Joseph Kabila, was earlier praised by international institutions like the IMF for helping stabilize the Congolese economy during his tenure as Finance Minister. He now leads the Leadership and Governance for Development (LGD) party and was briefly a 2023 presidential candidate before withdrawing from the race. Matata’s legal team called the verdict politically motivated, citing his opposition to President Felix Tshisekedi. The case, first opened by the Inspectorate General of Finance in 2020, has been under investigation for nearly four years.
According to the U.S. State Department, forced labour is legal in the DRC when imposed as a court sentence. The ruling is expected to draw both domestic and international scrutiny, particularly as the government faces pressure to curb high-level corruption in a country rich in natural resources yet ranked among the world’s poorest.
