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The Democratic Republic of Congo’s former prime minister, Augustin Matata Ponyo, was on Tuesday handed a 10-year sentence of forced labour after being convicted of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars from a flagship public agriculture project.
The ruling, issued by the country’s Constitutional Court on May 20, also implicated former central bank governor Deogratias Mutombo, who received a five-year sentence. Both men were barred from holding public office for five years following completion of their terms.
The charges relate to a sweeping financial scandal that dates back nearly a decade and involves the misappropriation of over $245 million in public funds earmarked for the Bukanga-Lonzo Agro-Industrial Park; a sprawling megaproject once hailed as a cornerstone of national food security.
Launched with ambitious promises to lift the DRC out of its chronic food crisis, the park was envisioned to become one of the continent’s largest agricultural investment zones. The initiative which was backed by the African Development Bank and expected to generate over 22,000 jobs ultimately collapsed, leaving behind only unfinished infrastructure, missing funds, and deepening public mistrust.
The Constitutional Court found that vast sums intended for the project were siphoned off under Matata’s watch while he served as prime minister from 2012 to 2016. Before that, he had gained international acclaim as finance minister, earning praise from institutions like the International Monetary Fund for stabilizing an economy battered by years of conflict.
Matata, now the leader of the Leadership and Governance for Development party (LGD), has fiercely denied the allegations, accusing the government of pursuing a politically driven vendetta. His lawyer described the court’s decision as “unjust and politically motivated” in comments to Reuters.
The former premier had launched a short-lived campaign to challenge President Félix Tshisekedi in the 2023 elections before abruptly pulling out. His supporters view the timing of the prosecution and verdict as indicative of a broader effort to neutralize political opposition in the mineral-rich nation.
Deogratias Mutombo, the former governor of the Central Bank of Congo, has not commented publicly on the verdict. He too has been linked to the financial mismanagement surrounding the park, which became the subject of a 2020 investigation by the Inspectorate General of Finance.
According to U.S. State Department documentation, the DRC permits forced labour as a criminal sentence if ordered by a court. The controversial practice remains a legal form of punishment, though it is viewed by many human rights groups as outdated and punitive.
The downfall of the Bukanga-Lonzo project has become emblematic of the challenges facing governance and development in the DRC, where decades of conflict, weak institutions, and political instability continue to undermine reform efforts. Nearly 28 million Congolese face acute food insecurity today, and critics argue that the failure of large-scale public investments like this one only deepens the country’s humanitarian crisis.
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