[Focus] – Defamatory, hateful and baseless comments are circulating on social networks against the Executive Director of the Industry Promotion Fund (IPF), Patrice Kitebi, alleging so-called tribalism and other embezzlement.

These allegations addressed to various political and administrative authorities are the work of some nostalgic people who seek to damage the reputation of the Director General Kitebi, who currently manages the IPF, a public institution, with rigour to the satisfaction of the State owner and the vast majority of Congolese people.

This is the case between Mr. Kitangala and the IPF. The latter attacked Mr. Kitebi by posing as an advisor to the IPF when the Fund has no contractual relationship with him. Despite this, he made extremely serious, unacceptable allegations that were likely to damage the honour and dignity of Executive Director Kitebi and tarnish the IPF’s image.

Some illustrations
On 2 March 2019, in his letter to the President of the Republic, a copy of which was reserved for several other authorities, he imagined that sums of money were being disbursed in collaboration with the Mbweshangol firm.

As of February 08, almost the same allegations were made to the Minister of Industry with amplifications to other personalities.

Similarly, on February 20, in a letter to the General Manager of the IPF, he alleges tribalism, nepotism, clientelism, regionalism, looting and misappropriation of the IPF’s assets against Mr. Patrice Kitebi.

It should be noted that Kitangala had, at the time, brought an action before the judicial courts of the city of Kinshasa, which all dismissed it for lack of evidence of the allegations made by him.

The latest judicial decision is that of 06 May 2019 contained in letter RI 1127/PG/2019/LUK of 15 April 2019 by which the Prosecutor General of the Kinshasa/Gombe Court of Appeal dismissed Kitangala’s complaint against Director General Kitebi and Master Mbweshangol on 1 April 2019.

For facts not established, on 14 May 2019, the Director General Kitebi referred the matter to the Prosecutor’s Office of Kinshasa/Matete for slanderous, defamatory, hateful and baseless statements intended to damage his reputation and honour among the country’s high authorities and the public.

On 10 June 2019, in the case registered under RMP 1149/PG.023 b/JMK, the Attorney General’s Office placed Kitangala under the link of the Preliminary Arrest Warrant and on 13 June 2019, the Kinshasa/Matete Peace Court confirmed his preventive detention at the remand centre annexed to the Makala Central Prison for libel and defamation under articles 74 and 76 of the Book II Criminal Code.

By 1 July 2019, the Prosecutor General of Kinshasa/Matete had sent, by letter 3618/RMP.1149/PG.1149/PG.23b/JMK/2019, a request for a hearing to be fixed with the aim of preventing “having mischievously and publicly attributed to others a specific fact that is likely to damage his honour or consideration or expose him to public contempt”.

Under RP 33293, the President of the Peace Tribunal Matete had fixed this repressive case at the hearing of 17 July 2019, during which the defendant had requested provisional release.

On 23 July, by an order, the Tribunal de Céans kept the accused in pre-trial detention on the grounds that there were serious indications of guilt on his part and that he had been arrested by search warrant, his flight was to be feared and his release on bail might hinder the investigation.

Another hearing date had been set for Wednesday, August 07, 2019, during which the defendant had requested the Tribunal to postpone the hearing to three weeks. The next hearing will be scheduled for Wednesday, August 28, 2019.

Moreover, Patrice Kitebi is a national of the former province of Bandundu. But from there, to go so far as to call him tribalism is to misunderstand man.

Indeed, as a man with easy, dignified and civic relations, Mr Patrice Kitebi has surrounded himself with collaborators whose closest relatives are not, however, nationals of the same province as him. But with whom, he shares his professional passion and rigour in management.

Congolese law does not allow acts of defamation and slanderous denunciations to go unpunished against anyone who commits them.

IPF Advice