Congo’s lawmakers have rejected a request by prosecutors to lift former Prime Minister Matata Ponyo Mapon’s immunity so they could indict him for his role in a failed agriculture project in which investigators say $200 million disappeared.
According to local reports, prosecutors hoped to charge Matata, who served as Democratic Republic of Congo’s prime minister under former President Joseph Kabila from 2012 to 2016, with fraud, misappropriation of funds and dereliction of duty in connection with the project.
The embattled former PM has denied wrongdoing, including any responsibility for the missing funds.
It was stated that Matata hailed the project, known as Bukanga Lonzo, as a solution to food shortages when it was launched in 2014, but within three years, it collapsed, sparking a political firestorm.
Reports said in a secret vote following a closed-door debate, the senate voted 49-46 against lifting the immunity from criminal prosecution that Matata enjoys as a senator. One senator abstained.
Speaking after the vote, Matata said “I accept this decision which respects the truth. I never took even a dollar from this project, either directly or indirectly.”
Meanwhile, prosecutors have not publicly provided evidence showing Matata personally benefited from the more than $200 million that they allege went missing.
However, in a letter to parliament last month, they averred that he bypassed public procurement requirements to contract out operations at Bukanga Lonzo to a South African company and suggested he had a financial motive for doing so.
In the letter, prosecutors said “From the way Senator Matata and Mr. Christo Grobler…collaborated, one can easily understand the laxity by the public treasury from which the latter benefited”.
