Kinshasa, May 29th, 2025 (CPA) – An indictment from the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was sent to the plenary session of the National Assembly on Thursday, seeking authorisation to investigate Nicolas Kazadi, national MP and former finance minister, for revealing facts relating to governance and spreading false rumors.
‘I have the honor of sending you this indictment with a view to obtaining authorization to conduct an investigation against Mr. Nicolas Kazadi, Member of the National Assembly and former Minister of Finance. On March 4th, 2025, Mr. Nicolas Kazadi, in his capacity as former Minister of Finance of the Democratic Republic of Congo and currently a Member of the National Assembly, made a media appearance during which he made comments calling into question the current financial management of the State’, announced Jacques Djoli, rapporteur for the National Assembly, reading out the indictment issued by the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation.
This indictment was based on the laws of the Republic and transmitted to the lower house of Parliament, ‘in accordance with Articles 5 and 7, paragraph 2, of the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Congo as amended by Law no. 11/002 of January 20th, 2011, as well as Article 75 of Organic Law no. 13/010 of February 19th, 2013 on proceedings before the Court of Cassation’, The request from the public prosecutor’s office, read out in plenary by the rapporteur of the lower house, Jacques Djoli, concerns comments made by Nicolas Kazadi in an interview broadcast on 4 March 2025. In it, the former minister denounced, among other things, the ‘squandering of public funds’, the ‘untimely creation of public establishments’ and the ‘culture of enjoyment’ at the top of the State. ‘The current national MP made a media appearance in which he questioned the State’s current financial management. In this public intervention, he denounced what he described as financial mismanagement, characterised, according to him, by multiple abuses in public governance’, according to the indictment issued by the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation.
During his media appearance, Mr Kazadi also accused the current regime of ‘a culture of enjoyment marked by the squandering of public funds, in defiance of budgetary and financial orthodoxy’. The former Congolese treasurer made other revelations against the current government, including the financing of unproductive projects which, in his view, serve as a pretext for embezzling public funds; the untimely creation of public establishments, in violation of budgetary norms, some of which have no effective functioning; and irregularities in the payment of bonuses and directors’ fees paid directly to the Inspectorate General of Finance, in disregard of the remit of the Ministry in charge of Finance. Nicolas Kazadi, who currently sits in the National Assembly, enjoys parliamentary immunity.
Lifting this immunity is a prerequisite for the opening of any legal proceedings. The request made by the public prosecutor’s office will therefore have to be examined by the relevant bodies in the lower house. A special committee has been set up for this purpose. A former senior international civil servant, Nicolas Kazadi was Minister in charge of Finance between April 2021 and March 2024 in the government led by Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde. He was elected Member of Parliament in the December 2023 general elections. CPA/