The Democratic Republic of Congo has no money. Mining is supposed to be the motor of the economy, but copper prices have fallen dramatically so the government has no income. Survival is being made even harder by a the rapid devaluation of the Congolese franc. UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon is travelling to the country at the end of this week to discuss the situation.
"Copper and cobalt prices have collapsed and our production costs were too high,"
explains a spokesman for Mr Forrest.
There is indeed still some activity at Luiwishi, but not by official mineworkers. A group of young men and dirty children disappear into a deep hole. When they reappear with a sack of pitch-black soil, the supervisor orders them away with an old rifle. There are an estimated 200,000 of these informal and illegal mine workers in Katanga.
Cleaning day
Lubumbashi lies in the mineral-rich region of Katanga, whose governor is Moise Katumbi. According to him, a quarter of a million people have lost their income in recent months, and the majority of them are mineworkers. Moise Katumbi is a populist politician. It's Saturday morning, public cleaning day in Katanga's provincial capital Lubumbashi. The governor, wearing a pair of blue jeans, rolls his sleeves up, and says:
"We've missed the chance of a boom in Congo. The crisis came at the worst possible time, as the mining companies had just begun their major investments."
One ton of copper sold for $3,196 on 18 February, compared to $7,919 a year ago. Victor Kasongo, the vice-minister for mining, repeated the sombre prognoses in Kinshasa:
"Just as the mining sector should have been making a flying start, the financial crisis began and the war in eastern Congo broke out. Two motors of the aircraft, that we were relying on, suddenly appeared defective."
The worldwide economic crisis has reached Africa. DR Congo, which depends on the export of minerals for the overwhelming majority of its income, is without money. It will probably soon receive emergency loans worth $300 million from the IMF and the World Bank, in order to prevent bankruptcy and social unrest. The government has no money left to pay its officials, even before the payment of its 11 billion dollar debt.
Congo produces very little itself, and in the middle of February the government only had enough dollars left for one day's imports. Paul Fortin, head of the state mining company Gécamines in Katanga, explains:
"We're bleeding. I haven't got the money to pay the salaries at the end of the month."
Sports clubs
Just six months ago, trucks laden with minerals were still trundling 24 hours a day through the streets of Lubumbashi, buildings were rising, the streets were full of new cars, sports clubs for businessmen were flourishing, and new restaurants were opening everywhere. The boom attracted about forty Chinese purchasing companies, and those around Lubumbashi bought minerals from the mineworkers.
The Chinese did a moonlight flit suddenly in December, causing a lot of bad blood. An angry Governor Katumbi says:
"They disappeared overnight, without informing their personnel and without paying salaries and taxes. If they don't pay their arrears, I shall go to court to seize their things. As long as I'm governor, they needn't come back. Katanga isn't a jungle."
The crisis is beginning to bite hard. For most of the seven million inhabitants of the capital Kinshasa, the only thought is how to make it through the day. Ditina Mondo and Kusiku Mbaku are standing in the working-class district of Mulie in front of their workshop "The house of hope." Their hope was lost last month when thieves stole all their sewing machines.
"The prices have been going up rapidly in the past few weeks", complains Ditina. "All my four children are selling peanuts on the streets. There's no more money for school fees."
Petty thieves
Crime is on the increase. The women take refuge in a bar as a petty thief gets a beating from bystanders. Not long ago, barman Didier sold ten crates of beer a day, now just two. He studied as an electrician, but in the district where he lives there's almost never any electricity or work.
"People here often go to bed with an empty stomach. They've learned to suffer."
* RNW translation (as)
Tags: cobalt, copper, DR Congo, Katanga, Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, minerals, mining
