Reply To: Bandundu Barber Shop

[Congo]

All counters of the Multimodal Freight Management Office (OGEFREM) both at the head office of the administrative headquarters of Kinshasa and those of the provincial entities: Lubumbashi and Kasumbalesa at the Katanga-Kasaï Regional Directorate (DRKK), Matadi, Boma, Muanda and Lufu at the Provincial Directorate West (DPO) and in the three entities of Bukavu, Goma and Maniema at the Regional Directorate Kivu-Maniema (DRKM) did not work. Indeed, the workers of Ogefrem, gathered around the Intersyndicale Nationale observe since yesterday, Monday, March 12, 2018, a work stoppage. Objective, get the departure of the Government of VPM José Makila Sumanda and Mr. Jemsy Mulengwa, Chairman of the Board of Directors (PCA) of Ogefrem. Through a correspondence dated March 12, 2018, the National Intersyndicale of the Office seized the competent authorities, including the General Labor Inspectorate, to make this strike action official.

Charges

The MPV of Transport and Communication Channels and the PCA of Ogefrem are accused of wanting to harm their company which, since the advent of the current management team, is resurfacing. Targeted in the destruction of their company, the officers and agents of the Office denounce the VMP Jose Makila and PCA Jemsy Mulengwa who would engage in any kind of trap against the DG of Ogefrem, Patient Sayiba Tambwe , and his DGA, Olivier Manzila, from whom they regularly ask for sums of money as the former management committee would have accustomed them to.

It is time for a quick solution to be found because, this strike movement will undoubtedly affect the revenue of the company and therefore a considerable loss of profits, regrets an agent. This work stoppage is not without serious implications in the relations of collaboration with other related services involved in the Multimodal Freight sector such as DGDA, OCC, Chargeurs, shipowners and FERI Center.

As a result of this large-scale economic paralysis, the workers of the Office are already seeking the assistance of the Head of State, Joseph Kabila Kabange, who is the guarantor of the proper functioning of all the Institutions, to get involved decisively to settle this situation as quickly as possible by raising their cries of distress before it is too late.

Asked by the press, Mr. Mike Mahene, Legal Advisor at Ogefrem, said that Mr. Makila received from the former committee, on his own behalf, the sum of $ 25,000 each month. This, not to mention the pot that was reserved for the PCA.

The water drop…

According to the Legal Adviser, José Makila and Jemsy Mulengwa seek to reinstate the agents and executives expelled from the company for financial malfeasance, better for forgery and use of forgeries, according to the prescriptions of the Collective Agreement, the rules of procedure and the Code working. And this, despite the fact that the decision of the high hierarchy of the Office would have been endorsed by the two aforementioned. They even went far, seeking legal action against them. More curious than it may seem, the same Minister and the PCA return to the charge to rehabilitate people whose file has already been filed. If the DG does not obey the orders of the latter, it is rather him, who will be suspended, was learned from the mouth of another worker. “Such a posture is like a simple subterfuge or alibi,” retorts the staff of the Office because, the problem is elsewhere.

The real problem

Cross-checking the facts with some witnesses suggests that these people being chased out of the business were protecting the interests of their mentors, in this case the MPP and the PCA. That’s why, they say, it was not surprising to see Ogefrem live on overdrafts that are fanciful receivables estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars for which the current management team is currently to mop up gradually. Like what, to remove the staff of the Office, agents and executives caught in flagrancy of diversion, it is to cut the grass under the feet of the above-mentioned high personalities, indicates on the side of the intersyndicale.

Call for vigilance

One of the members of the Intersyndicale praised the maturity of the workers who, until then, did not give in to the provocation even though there were people sent to try to provoke the demonstrators so that there would be clashes and breaks. Against all odds, the workers agree to maintain the pressure and fight to win their claim.