DR Congo: Still hostage to history?

By: Mweusi Karake

On Monday 7^th December 2020, the world watched one of the most embarrassing, parliamentary debate, in Africa’s largest and best resources endowed country, The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

 At the  Palais du Peuple , The People’s Palace , the seat of the National Assembly and Senate in Kinshasa,  an excellent nomenclature coined by former self-styled demi god ruler of Congo which he named Zaire, Joseph Desire Mobutu, who renamed himself Mobutu Sesse Seko Kuku Ngwebendo wa Zabanga. 

 If it wasn’t for Donald Trump, the Western world would have said “ look at these savage blacks”. We in Africa and the East and central Africa in particular (Great lakes) were to say the least ashamed by our parliamentarians. We watched on TV screens as parliament brawl broke out in the DRC, as ministers clad in tailored suits overturning desks, throwing at each other chairs, counters and whatever their hands managed to reach.

The cause of the commotion was a motion that  President Felix Tshisekedi  had announced,    the ruling coalition was making it difficult for him to implement his mandate and he planned to either create a new coalition or dissolve parliament altogether.

Tshisekedi had announced earlier that  he planned to form a new coalition, in which ministers loyal to his predecessor Joseph Kabila command more than 300 seats in the 500-member parliament.

He said he may have to dissolve parliament and hold a fresh election if he could not form a new coalition.

The ministers brawl had nothing to do with the protection of democracy, it had to with self-preservation, amoung other things the protection of one of the most bizarre arrangements made to allow former president Joseph Kabila to hand over power, among those arrangements is a huge life time allowance for former ministers. One provides for former prime ministers, starting with Mr. Bruno Tshibala, Kabila’s prime minister who was appointed in April 2017, to receive a monthly salary equivalent to 30 percent of the current prime minister’s, a monthly housing stipend of $5,000 and health care overseas.

 Note the well-crafted word “Current” meaning that in future if serving ministers salaries go up, ex ministers allowances will equally go up. Besides these huge allowances, one international flight per year in business class would also be assured!

So to be an ex minister in DR Congo entitles you a life time benefits more than that of 10 practicing medical doctors and 100 practicing high school teachers.

Kabila needs to understand the old wisdom about politics.

The old wisdom of Willian Clay will always be relevant “ In politics there are no permanent friends nor permanent enemies”, for Kabila to think that the 300 ministers and 60% Legislators that were elected on his ticket will always be royal to him shows that despite 18 years in power he has not fully grasped the working of politicians.

Of course Kabila was born after independence, but still he ought to have read the history of his country, and know that Mobutu was a personal friend to Patrice Lumumba. It is Patrice Lumumba who brought the young journalists student Mobutu, into Congo’s independence negotiations, it is Patrice Lumumba, who appointed Mobutu as his personal Secretary when he became prime minister giving him a seat at the political high table. And it is Patrice Lumumba who sublimed Mobutu to the rank of military Colonel and Chief of Staff of the newly independent Congo when Congolese soldiers rioted against continued Belgian officers’ leadership of the army. But when time came to choose between his former friend and CIA, Mobutu chose the latter. It provided income to him and assurance to power. It is the same Mobutu who facilitated Lumumba’s death. In politics treachery did not end with Brutus and Julius Caesar.

Match: one –nil

On Thursday 10th December, in the political football Joseph Kabila lost 1 to Nil. Despite his party holding 60 per cent of the National Assembly  (L’Assemblée nationale). The pro Kabila speaker Jeanine Mabunda was impeached! The National Assembly voted by 281 to 200 to impeach speaker Jeanine Mabunda, a close Kabila ally, accusing her of “conflictual and partisan” leadership and not being transparent about her management of the body’s finances. Where were Kabila’s MPs to stop the ouster? Hope he learnt some lesson and negotiate a peaceful exit.

The legislators know that if Tshisekedi dissolves parliament, and goes back to the voters, many of the pro- Kabila MPs may not come back. Last time they had state apparatus provided by Kabila. This time they will have none. Self-preservation is human nature.

Kabila is not Mobutu, 1920 is not 1960

Mobutu once correctly prophesized that his Ghost will rule Zaire ( DR Congo) for two decades. That sounded his usual self-deification. But two decades after his demise his prophesy seems true. Kabila the Father and Son ran DR Congo a la Mobutu. But Mobutu captured power in 1960 (Albeit allowing some kind of civilian figure heads at the beginning. But Congo of 1960 is not Congo of 2020

The Colonial Belgian had ensured their colonial subjects were very poorly educated. By independence only 17 Congolese had a university degree. Despite years of mismanagement, today they are thousands and thousands of graduates. So whereas Mobutu could convince his people of his magical powers, such as his ability to be in more than one place at the same time, or his ability to change himself from a human being into a Leopard and vice versa.  No Congolese leader can convince his people of such powers today.

In 1960s Mobutu took power thanks to the cold war that allowed CIA to plan the murder of Patrice Lumumba, and the Belgian government sending troops into Congo while the then very weak UN looked on. That will not happen today. So for Kabila to continue pulling strings, he will do so on his own.

Congo in terms of resources is the richest country in Africa if not on the planet. True many world powers want continued chaos in Congo to continue looting its resources, but they don’t want total Chaos where Congo becomes totally ungovernable and no one to sign contracts with.

President Felix Tshisekedi  is aware that this is not sustainable, but he runs a country that has been run as a personal estate, from the colonial King Leopold, the self styled Marchal Mobutu Sese Seko   ( originally Joseph Desire Mobutu).By the time he was chased out of power he was worth more than 10 billion dollars. As for Joseph Kabila, his estimates by Congolese plunder is a “ modest” US $2  billion in offshore banks in the British Virgin Islands, accumulated in just  18 years of being in power. Note that Mobutu was in power for 32 years .

Mobutu looted his country and survived, thanks to the CIA and European allies who saw him as anti Eastern ideologues.

Mobutu once gave wisdom about  stealing in the following words ,  “If you want to steal, steal a little in a nice way. But if you steal too much to become rich overnight, you’ll be caught.” Mobutu stole in “ a nice way “ for 32 years, Kabila did in 18 years, if the current Congolese ministers expect to get so much in 2 years,  then more desks and more furniture will fly at the  Palais du Peuple.

And for président Tshisekedi let us hope that his motivation is to be the first post-colonial Congolese leader whose intention is not power for its sake or just for pecuniary gains but to make DR Congo a functioning society.

As for the congolaises  Ministers and legislators throwing chairs at each other. I can only quote for them the words of  Martin Luther King Jr,  “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools”.

The first African National anthem I leant as a child in 1960 was that of Congo with the following lyrics:

« Debout Congolais »,

Unis par le sort,

Unis dans l’effort pour l’indépendance,

Dressons nos fronts longtemps courbés

Et pour de bon prenons le plus bel élan, dans la paix,

O peuple ardent, par le labeur, nous bâtirons un pays plus beau qu’avant, dans la paix……

“Arise Congolese”

Arise, Congolese,

united by fate,

United in the struggle for independence,

Let us hold up our heads, so long bowed,

And now, for good, let us keep moving boldly ahead, in peace.

Oh, ardent people, by hard work we shall build,

In peace, a country more beautiful than before”……….

So in a way I cherish Congolese independence dreams.

 I cry and for my Congolese brothers and sisters. What happened to these dreams? You survived King leopald’s Ghost cant you shed off Marshal Mobutu’s Ghost?

Mweusi Karake is a veteran journalist and former head of Public Relations/Corporate Communication at the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

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