Strike action begun two weeks ago by transport workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has paralysed economic activity at the country’s leading port, a union source said on Wednesday.
The strike, in the south-western port of Matadi, ”affects the whole national network” of the National Transport Office (Onatra), said Etienne Ntadila, staff representative at the public company.
Strikers are calling for the departure of Onatra’s management committee, which they accuse of ”financial embezzlement”.
Transport Minister Heva Muakasa has suspended the committee but one of the country’s four Vice-Presidents, Azarias Ruberwa, is supporting it ahead of the results of a government inquiry.
”We’re waiting for the conclusions of the audit initiated by the government before any resumption,” Ntadila said, underlining that the halt in the port’s activity was costing around $500 000 a day.
Dozens of ships are waiting near the port to unload their cargoes, which can take more than two months to reach Kinshasa, 360km to the north.
”If in the short term there is no solution to end the strike, we’ll have a lack of products with inevitable consequences on price hikes,” said a representative of the Federation of Congo Businesses (FEC).
”Stocks of building materials, food products and other things are diminishing. The situation is only getting worse,” he said.
Most of the revenues of Onatra — the only public operator of rail and sea transport in the DRC — come from the Matadi, the only maritime port in the country, built in 1886 by Belgian colonisers at the mouth of the Congo river.
Port activity has slowed in recent years because of a lack of maintenance of its quays and an economic recession in the Central African country at war between 1996-2003. – Sapa-AFP