The Phantom Minister

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Here's a bizarre story out of the Congo:

A party leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo who proposed an apparently fictitious person for a post in the new cabinet has been sacked.

The so-called case of the "phantom" government minister, Andre Kasongo Ilunga, has puzzled politicians in the war-torn African nation in recent days.

The case came to light when Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga began to appoint ministers to his new cabinet.

The elusive Mr Ilunga got the post of trade but resigned before taking it up.

The party's leader, Honorius Kisimba Ngoy, leader of Unafec, a party allied to President Joseph Kabila, allegedly invented Mr Ilunga in the hope that submitting the name of an unknown along with his own would ensure he was appointed to the cabinet.

The stunt apparently backfired when the prime minister appointed Mr Ilunga.

Hilarious.