🇲🇺 Rs 25 billion gone from four banks, and PM Ramgoolam named every one

Rs 25 billion gone from four banks, and PM Ramgoolam named every one

Rs 25 billion. That is PM Navin Ramgoolam's tally of what has vanished from four local banks under the previous MSM government: siphoned funds, non-performing loans, irrecoverable debt. PM Ramgoolam named weak Bank of Mauritius supervision as the common thread across ten years.

Silver Bank: Rs 8.1 billion bad loans on an Rs 8.3 billion book. SBM Bank: Rs 14.34 billion in write-offs over a decade. Development Bank of Mauritius: Rs 400 million in bad loans tied to companies in liquidation. MauBank Holdings: negative equity of Rs 2.95 billion since its creation in 2015.

Separately, PM Ramgoolam revealed that 35 people have died in prison or police custody since November 2024: seven by hanging, twenty-four from natural causes, four still under investigation. Criminal suspicion surrounds four of those cases.

SBM wrote off more in a decade than the entire national university budget. It was all there in the annual reports.

CEB's empty coffers: Rs 3.2 billion drained to state treasury under the last government

Energy Minister Patrick Assirvaden told parliament Tuesday that Rs 3.2 billion was drained from the Central Electricity Board to the Consolidated Fund over a few weeks. Former PM Pravind Jugnauth and former finance minister Renganaden Padayachy ordered the transfers, Assirvaden said: Rs 1.3 billion in November 2021, Rs 1.2 billion in December, then Rs 500 million more.

CEB now carries an overdraft of Rs 2.6 billion and owes Rs 5.3 billion to foreign and local lenders combined. Draining a utility reserves to plug a budget gap is the kind of decision that takes years to undo.

Budget 2026-27: what will it take to actually ease the cost of living?

What does the 2026-27 budget actually need to do? Economists and consumer advocates have a clear answer: deliver concrete relief on cost of living, or lose the credibility the new government earned at the ballot box.

Analysts say structural fixes are overdue: tackle imported goods costs, reform the subsidy system, create genuine retail competition. Consumer groups want regional wholesale markets restored to give shoppers a real alternative to supermarket prices.

HSC student charged with murder after intruder dies at Allée-Brillant

Kenny Catherine, 18, was provisionally charged with murder at Curepipe court Tuesday. He was home revising for HSC exams Monday when William Villars, 25, entered his property at Allée-Brillant, Vacoas. Villars fled over the wall, fell on the asphalt and was found unresponsive. The autopsy returned compression of the neck.

BADEA to fund water distribution study for the south

The Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, known as BADEA, has signalled its intention to finance a consulting study to improve drinking water supply networks in the south and south-west of Mauritius. Recurring shortages and growing demand in those region are behind the move. No funding figure or timeline has been announced; the study comes first.

Shorts

Father dies in Abercrombie road crash – Pradeep Cheekoory, 58, died in a road accident near Abercrombie; his daughter, 12, remains hospitalised.

Camp-Thorel four kept in detention – All four suspects from Sunday's Camp-Thorel clashes appeared before Moka district court and were remanded in custody.

SA cyberattack took lexpress.mu offline – South African cyberattacks knocked lexpress.mu offline Tuesday; Mauritius-hosted services were caught in the crossfire.

MCB brings Apple Pay to Mauritius – MCB has launched Apple Pay for customers, enabling contactless payments by iPhone and Apple Watch.

Two MCIT officers jailed; four more sought – Two are charged; FCC is tracking four more officers tied to the MCIT Terre-Rouge corruption case.

Rs 325 million

owed to the Mauritius Investment Corporation by Stella Di Mare Mauritius Ltd over a stalled hotel project at Les Salines Koenig that has not materialised.

Rs 43 million

worth of synthetic drugs seized in 2022 at the centre of an Assizes trial where Ukrainian national Mariia Peresolkina says she was deceived by co-accused John Mick Martingale.

$275 million

agreed by Adani Enterprises to settle US Treasury allegations that the company purchased sanctioned Iranian energy in breach of American sanctions.

Ebola kills over 130 in DRC as the US bars travellers from the outbreak zone

Over 131 dead and 400 suspected cases: the Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC is accelerating in Ituri province. This is the Bundibugyo strain, rare and without any approved vaccine or treatment.

WHO sent 18 tonnes of emergency supplies. Uganda has two confirmed imported cases in Kampala. The US is restricting entry and screening travellers from the outbreak zone.

Remote terrain, active armed groups, a strain with no vaccine. This one is genuinely hard to contain.

Kenya pauses transport strike after government cuts diesel price

Kenya's transport strike over Middle East war-driven fuel costs was suspended for one week after four deaths; the government responded by cutting diesel prices.

AFCON 2027 qualifying draw held in Cairo

CAF, African football's governing body, held the qualifying draw for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations in Cairo; the tournament goes to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Cuba's president warns Washington: military action will bring a bloodbath

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has warned the United States that any military move would trigger a "bloodbath," as Washington announced new sanctions targeting Cuba's top leaders, generals and spies. Cuba is also accused of acquiring drones.

The sanctions mark a sharp deterioration in US-Cuba relations, as the islands population endures fuel shortages and Havana sees rare street protests.

Former Spanish PM Zapatero under investigation for graft and influence peddling

Spain's High Court has opened an investigation into former PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for alleged graft and influence peddling.

Trump held off an Iran strike to give peace talks a chance

Trump postponed a planned military strike against Iran to let nuclear negotiations continue, after Gulf allies urged him not to derail the diplomatic track.

The Mobutu-era suit that refused to stay buried

Fifty years after Mobutu made the collarless abacost jacket mandatory dress in Zaire as a rejection of Western suits, designers in Kinshasa are reaching for it again. This time out of choice, not obligation.

The name is a dig at Europe: abacost is "a bas le costume" in French, meaning down with the suit. Mobutu fell in 1997. A generation born after him is now finding the jacket on its own terms.