JOHANNESBURG, November 7 (ANA) – The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) enormous mineral wealth is being exploited by greedy international companies and corrupt middlemen with close relations to President Joseph Kabila and other senior government officials, according to the Paradise Papers.
The issue was raised by Paradise Papers which comprise more than 13.4 million leaked documents, mostly from Appleby, one of the world’s leading offshore law firms, but also from corporate registries revealing the dealings of politicians, celebrities, corporate giants and business leaders.
According to journalists investigating the Paradise Papers, one of the companies which has made enormous profits from the DRC’s minerals by appearing to pay a fraction of what would be considered a fair price is Anglo-Swiss mining and commodity trading company Glencore. Glencore denies any wrong-doing.
Glencore had been working with notorious Israeli billionaire businessman Dan Gertler until they agreed to pay him $534m to buy him out of their shared mining interests in DR Congo in February this year. Earlier Glencore had loaned Gertler’s company Lora Enterprises $45m.
Gertler became involved in the DRC in 2001 after securing mining licensing deals with the country’s authorities – deals that were described by the UN as “disastrous”.
In 2005 the Congolese parliament accused the Israeli businessman of looting the country’s resources, while US officials accused an unnamed “Israeli businessman” of paying $100 million in bribes to DRC officials.
According to an updated statement by Glencore, sent on Monday to The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Gertler was asked by Glencore to negotiate a new deal for Katanga Mining in 2008.
The DRC government wanted the mining deal renegotiated with state-owned mining company Gécamines demanding $585m in an “access premium” to allow the exploitation of copper and cobalt at the mine. So-called access premiums or facilitation payments have been prohibited by many international mining and resources companies because they can be perceived to be bribes.
Following the Israeli’s intervention, Katanga managed to secure mining licenses at a discounted price of $140 million in 2009 down from the original asking price of $585 million. The previous agreement had been for $135m.
This deal cost the Congo millions of dollars – a country where half the population lives below the poverty line.
In 2013, a report by the Africa Progress Panel, led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, alleged Gertler’s companies had won mining rights in DR Congo at well below their true value.
Gertler’s layers deny the allegations made in the 2001 and 2013 reports.
– African News Agency (ANA)
