Kinshasa, February 16th of 2027.

Following the prosecution of corruption in the DRC, Moïse Katumbi has remarked to the media about the necessity to avoid corruption in all spheres of Congolese society; and for that to occur, there needs to be a fostering – a love – for Congolese democracy.

For that reason, Katumbi has been talking to experts about Congolese electoral law and about the necessity for media neutrality laws, reforms to the electoral commission, new packages for anti-corruption laws, reforms in the tax system, the list is, essentially endless; but today, Katumbi went forward to the National Assembly with a new package of comprehensive laws that will, according to him, “collaborate in transforming the Democratic Republic of the Congo into a more democratic nation”.

The National Democracy Act of 2027

The act begins by reaffirming the democratic principles of which the DRC was founded, and establishes an encouraging stance on the principles of democracy, on the free market, government transparency and media participation in Congolese society.

This comes in many shapes and forms; one of the sub-components of the ND Act is the Journalistic Objectivity Reform; this reform, in essence, writes regulations and legislation that obligates media groups, media conglomerates and other media-affiliated enterprises, to perform background checks on their employees to ensure no political affiliation.

Audits will be made by the OPCCR to ensure that media groups have not been receiving donations or contributions made by politicians, persons associated with political groups, or political parties themselves.

Media conglomerates, media groups, and other media-affiliated enterprises that have been found guilty of receiving donations or funding from political groups, political entities, politicians and etcetera, will receive a fine upwards of 15% of their market value, along with a strong reprimand from the national Congolese government.

While it is comprehensible that complete objectivity is impossible, as bias is invariably part of human nature, the Congolese government will be setting regulations which encourage fairness and accuracy in reporting, as to provide viewers and readers with comprehensive journalism, so that they can choose what they believe is correct.

Furthermore, while a major part of our media is nationalized, that does not mean that we must have government-affiliated staff performing the duties of journalism, so we are going to be performing new audits and reshuffling our staff, eliminating government-biased employees and allocating qualified, politically independent journalists wherever possible.

Alongside the Journalistic Objectivity Reform, the government has decided to propose the National Transparency Act; this act, proposed by one of the DA government representatives, encompasses a tax returns publication legislation; which essentially means that public officials that are employed at the national Congolese government, including elected politicians, federal police officers, OPCCR officers, members of the national bureaucracy, ministers of the DRC and the President of the Republic.

In order to promote transparency, the government will be applying new legislation which obligates the government to produce bi-yearly reports on the economic situation of the DRC, budget reports on December 20th of every day, and other reports, employee lists and etcetera, on the official site of the government of the DRC, which President Katumbi has already pledged to be completely re-done with a modern UI, simplified and accessible for every Congolese citizen, found in French, English, and all of the languages of the DRC.

Furthermore, there will be an expansion of the state auditor and his staff, allowing flexibility to address further financial audits and expedite the processes for more efficient anti-corruption measures.

To conclude, the Congolese government would like to clarify that this bill will not ban political advertising, nor openly biased publications; we are only policing those that push politics into stories that aren’t warranted or trying to interject a certain viewpoint while disregarding facts.

The Voting Process

The Congolese National Assembly had a lot of discussion about these measures; Katumbi has decided to take a neutral stance on the voting process, while the DA itself has been pushing the National Democracy Act on their own newspaper, with dozens of pamphlets all over the DRC, mostly in Kinshasa, talking about the benefits of this new Act, including the prosecution of dozens of politicians, government oversight over fraud, and the transparency of the Congolese government.

The National Assembly decided to pass the measure after a long period of discussion; the debate went around from February to March 29th of 2027, before finally passing at both the National Assembly and the Congolese Senate with 277/500 votes, or 55.4% of the voting in the National Assembly, and 67/109 votes, or 61.46% of the vote.