DRC: Albert Yuma’s vibrant call for the application of the revised Mining Code
Invited to lead an academic session on Monday, May 3, 2021 at the Economic and Social Council (CES), the President of the FEC, Albert Yuma Mulimbi, gave a presentation on the theme: “The challenges of the revised Mining Code”. For the speaker of this academic session, the main issue now for the revised Mining Code is that there is a common front of the country’s leaders for its effective application. Hence, Albert Yuma’s invitation to the Councilors of the Republic to “accompany the fight” of the application of the revised Mining Code so that the DRC finally benefits from its mining resources.
“The issue of the revised mining code went far beyond simple legal adaptation. His ambition was to be what is called a “GAME CHANGER”, but the expression picks up the idea well. The system that we have inherited is an unfair and iniquitous system. A system that has benefited from the bankruptcy of our State and the political divisions of our rulers to take possession of our mining sector in less than five years. This revised mining code is therefore a code of readjustment and rebalancing, the stakes of which are clear. Develop the financial resources of the State, develop a Congolese middle class by stimulating the economy and clean up the mining industry ”, declared Albert Yuma in substance during this academic meeting chaired by Jean-Pierre Kiwakana, president of the CES.
For the president of the FEC, a code does nothing on its own. “The law is only valid if it is applied and the fear and opposition shown by the industrialists present in the DRC when it was adopted, testified to the relevance of the action undertaken to become again what we have been, by trying to do better and to overcome the errors that were made in, it must be remembered, a very young Republic “, considers the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gécamines for whom the application of the revised Mining Code is” a question of sovereignty ”.
In the development of his presentation, Albert Yuma demonstrated that during the troubled years of the DRC, between 1996 and 2001 and until 2005 at the time of the 1 + 4 partition, Gécamines, a state enterprise, was further dispossessed. of 40 million tonnes of copper, 4.5 million tonnes of cobalt and 4.3 million tonnes of zinc by joint ventures, for the benefit of multinationals taking advantage of the too broad favors of the 2002 Mining Code recommended by the World Bank .
“We must therefore apply this Code without delay and it is the second step of the process, not the easiest, even if the previous one was already complex, to which I hope a third will succeed, which will find the ways and means so that these 40 or 54 million tonnes given up for free one day return to the national fold. It is a test for our country. Will we be able to come together and stand up to show a united face before which our partners will have no other choice but to respect the law? Only the future will tell, ”he told the Councilors of the Republic.
And to conclude: “We must not be mistaken, we are watched all over Africa and the whole world. If we succeed, when we are the main country of mineral raw materials on the continent, we will become an example for all our African brothers who will be able to join in the dynamic initiated with others and in particular our Zambian brothers. If we fail, it will be a sad signal that even the largest country in Central Africa, even the richest in its raw materials, even the most battered on the continent which has yet emerged from the spiral of violence, will not have failed to reestablish its independence on its raw materials. I am counting on all of you here present to support this fight ”.
Taking note of the call made by the speaker of the day, President Jean-Pierre Kiwakana invited the Councilors of the Republic to get to work to produce an Opinion to be submitted to the political authority for a better application of the Mining Code revised version of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
