Congo's fantoom-minister

[C2C]

Only in the Congo:

A party leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo who proposed an apparently fictitious person for a post in the new cabinet has been sacked.

The so-called case of the "phantom" government minister, Andre Kasongo Ilunga, has puzzled politicians in the war-torn African nation in recent days.

The case came to light when Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga began to appoint ministers to his new cabinet.

The elusive Mr Ilunga got the post of trade but resigned before taking it up.

The party's leader, Honorius Kisimba Ngoy, leader of Unafec, a party allied to President Joseph Kabila, allegedly invented Mr Ilunga in the hope that submitting the name of an unknown along with his own would ensure he was appointed to the cabinet.

The stunt apparently backfired when the prime minister appointed Mr Ilunga.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6414709.stm

It's just bizarre - nowhere else in the world could you attempt to swear in a ghost

Charles Yoshad
Civil servant

Aan alle liberalen en tsjeven die staan te springen om de Congo terug in te lijven en de Koning op verkenning te sturen: laten we dus even wachten en zien dat ze daar de "prille democratie" eerst op het goede spoor krijgen.

Ik stel voor dat we ons voorlopig beperken tot het leveren van steun aan kleinschalige projecten die overduidelijk rechstreeks de bevolking van Congo ten goede komen. En dus niet op z'n liberaals daar nu de groten investeerder gaan uithangen en te collaboreren met een regime waarvan voorlopig niemand kan zeggen wat het waard is.