Fake mining investors tricked an adviser to the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Vidiye Tshimanga asks to be associated, indirectly, with the company. In exchange, he promises to facilitate the obtaining of operating permits.
It is an "ambush at the top of the Congolese state", according to Africa Intelligence. This Thursday, the broadcast of a video showing Vidiye Tshimanga, a strategic adviser to Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi, is causing a stir. And for good reason: we see the influential politician being trapped by false investors who offer him, in essence, a bribe against his intervention to obtain access to the country's mines.
The former president of Daring Club Motema Pembe, who presents himself as the president of National Dynamique Congo uni and as special adviser in charge of strategic issues to the president, tried to counter-attack by assuring that he had, according to the Swiss newspaper Le Temps, wanted to trap his interlocutors, the situation raises questions about corruption at the highest level of the state.
In June 2021, Félix Tshisekedi took a stand against the corruption that plagues his country and launched a clean-up campaign. It is clear that there are still major projects in progress.
“I will take my percentage”
It was in London that Vidiye Tshimanga was trapped. According to Le Temps, he was paid for his meals and his taxi rides "by a man and a woman who claimed to work for a conglomerate based in Hong Kong and to be interested in Congolese minerals". A deception that will go much further…
Because still according to the Swiss newspaper, the “mysterious investors” recorded the strategic adviser without his knowledge. The man proposed to them to create a joint company, with the investors, to be able to touch a part of the future profits of the mining operations.
Tshimanga is very clear: “If we do business together, I will take my… percentage of the investment and make money,” he says.
In exchange, he promises to obtain mining licenses for his interlocutors and to facilitate the process for them. A scandal that the Congolese president did not need, after the Dan Gertler affair. Especially since his adviser seems to say that he has influence over the head of state: "If I ask for something, he gives," he says.
But above all, Vidiye Tshimanga involves Tshisekedi: “I am the president… The president does not do business”, continues the adviser. The latter also admits his past tricks, through holdings in the companies COBAMIN and Ivanhoe Mines. “With Ivanhoe, they have 80%, I have 20. , it's COBAMIN — my company. The other 20%, because in the mining law, you have the obligation to have a Congolese person” in the company.
Although he does not want "to be officially involved", Tshimanga nevertheless promises to facilitate the activities of his interlocutors. The adviser says he has known the president since 2014. And that his proximity to him is an asset. “You need powerful people to protect your investment and be with you. And I don't know if there are people more powerful than the president,” he concludes.