Political corruption in Congo Zaïre : its impact on development

Abstract

In the past decade or so, the "Great Lakes Region" of Sub-Saharan Africa attracted considerable attention from many observers and scholars. In this part of Africa, events have been always influenced by both the political and economic structures led down by the Belgians as colonizers of this region, but also, by the current changes and shifts in the global political economy. As a result, Congo-Zaïre, found itself trapped in one of the worst and consistent crisis ever experienced since it became independent from Belgium in 1960. This study however, will investigate the sources of the "Dire" political corruption and whether there could be any co-existence of corruption and development. The thesis of this study is that the political corruption in Congo-Zaïre has been exacerbated by the support of Mobutu's regime by the West during the Cold War era in Africa. Specifically it is argued that the massive in flows of loans received from the World Bank/IMF in the same period, created an opportunity for the government officials to deviate funds, thus making the state more dependent on the West and legitimizing corruption practices in that country.