Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

New website for the Alliance Congolaise de Controle du Tabac: still with problems

10 days after our previous visit, the ACCT website is still incomplete (and with a few typos on the homepage).

RDC: a website for the Alliance Congolaise pour le Contrôle du Tabac

Considering the technical issues of the new ACCT site (click for instance on the presentation or nos projets sections), one wonders why they did not choose to use existing ready to use blog platforms like Blogspot or Wordpress along with a Facebook page instead of trying (and failing for now) to master Joomla. There is also a spelling problem with the position of the e and u in accueil/welcome. Easy to fix :) All our best wishes.

Bloomberg Initiative 2014: 4 grants to DRC, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda.

The Bloomberg Initiative has funded 4 projects in Africa since the beginning of 2014, in DRC ($80K), Kenya ($60K), Uganda ($18K), Ghana ($20K) for a total of $178K. All are linked to support passing legislation or implementing existing regulations.

DRC: a $79,965 Bloomberg Initiative grant to promote Tobacco Control Legislation

From a recent visit to the Bloomberg Initiative website we found out that the Alliance Congolaise De Contrôle Du Tabac was awarded a one year grant of $80K to promote tobacco control legislation.

Blood cigarettes: cigarette smuggling and war economies in central and eastern Africa

A research paper by Kristof Titeca published in Tobacco Control Journal.

Questions/Réponses avec Patrick Musavuli, récipiendaire de la médaille 2010 de l'OMS

TCA a interrogé via email les récipiendaires de la médaille de l'OMS pour l'année 2010. Voici les réponses que nous a envoyées Patrick Musavuli.

RDC - Goma: Un rapport de Paul Lughembé sur le non respect de l'interdiction de fumer dans les organisations internationales à Goma

Le rapport de Paul Lughembé qui fournit témoignages et détails est disponible via Google.docs et ci-dessous.

RDC: Un reportage de Radio Okapi sur les controles douaniers à Goma

Un reportage de Radio Okapi dans la série Echos d'Economie. Ecoutez le podcast.

Transmis via Paul Lughembe.

Radio Okapi raconte la journée mondiale sans tabac 2009 à Kinshasa

C'est sur leur site radiookapi.net, avec un nouveau design très élégant et efficace: mise en cause, l'insuffisance de moyens financiers pour la lutte antitabac. Egalement cet article qui exprime les inquiétudes des médecins.

RDC, Rwanda, South Africa: Mastermind Tobacco CEO accused of evading taxes and financing the war

Several sources, including the latest UN report on the war in the DRC on 10 December 2008 (S/2008/773) have provided evidence that Mastermind CEO, Tribert Ayabatwa Rujiguro has been in touch with rebels involved in the war in DRC.

In all reports, the president of the Master Mind Group, of which Congo Tobacco Company (CTC), based in Goma (East of DRC) and producer of cigarettes Super Match is a subsidiary, is named.

Following a complaint by the authorities of South Africa, the president of the industry that produces the Super Match cigarette in Goma, was arrested in early November in London on the basis of an arrest warrant for "tax evasion" issued by South Africa.

If the judicial procedure followed its normal course, he should be extradited to South Africa to stand trial.
The South Africans would have seized as a precaution a few valuable assets belonging to Master Mind, including an aircraft, houses, vehicles and cash in cash with a value of 58 million rands.

Referring to the Master Mind Group, the Ugandan weekly "The East African" noted in its issue on 5 December 2005 through the "Industry moves to stub out illicit cigarette trade," that this group is the subject of a thorough investigation by Interpol because the manufacturer is considered as the most involved in the fraud that exists in the DRC, Kenya and Uganda.

According to information from Bandundu,one of 11 province of DRC, for more than three years, the company has used false statements of the provincial tax by falsifying documents and declaring in sales and receptions Super Match cigarettes in the province of Bandundu. Worse, it would pay its way or not to pay the provincial tax altogether. According to the governorate of Bandundu, which has in its sights CTC, it has never paid even 10% of what it owed to the province. That, at least, gives a total minimum of U.S. $ 157,000 (One hundred fifty-seven thousand dollars U.S.) as a loss to the province over a period of three years. This, in turn, enabled him to make a huge profit, and maintain prices at the stem of his cigarette to 10 Congolese Franc from 2003 to 2007 despite all the fluctuations in that country (U.S. $ 1 was equal 500 Congolese Francs in 2007).

Cedric Kalonji recherche 6 correspondant(e)s en RDC pour son blog

Une initiative à suivre.