Country in focus
DRC: new president
brings no fireworks
T
he DRC’s December general election was controversial, and
probably flawed, but considering the country’s history, a
change is as good as it gets. Democracy and a change in the
ruling party are still foreign concepts to the DRC. The country has
only had five presidents since 1960 when Joseph Kasavubu became
the first president after independence. In 1965, Mobutu Sese Seko
came to power and misruled for 32 years before, in 1997, Laurent
Kabila’s troops marched into the capital Kinshasa to depose of the
erstwhile dictator. Kabila’s assassination by one of his own body
guards four years later, resulted in his son, Joseph, being inaugurated
as president of the DRC in January 2001. Joseph Kabila held
that position until January this year, when Felix Tshisekedi, son
of veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, became the fifth
president since independence.
Felix Tshisekedi’s victory came as a surprise, and allegations are rife
that he is in Kabila’s pocket and that the two had negotiated a deal
before the election to maintain the Kabila patrimony. Tshisekedi
is the leader of the oldest and largest opposition party in the
DRC, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS).
18 AFRICAN MINING MARCH - APRIL 2019
Predictions before the elections were that Kabila would cook
the elections and ensure that Ramazani Shadary, leader of the
ruling party, the Common Front for Congo (FCC), and Kabila’s
preferred successor, takes power, and in this way, perpetuate his
own power and influence. The election results have been disputed
by businessman and leader of the Engagement for Citizenship and
Development, Martin Fayulu. But in a rather unsurprising verdict,
the Constitutional Court of the DRC affirmed Tshisekedi’s victory.
According to Nick Piper of risk consultants Signal Risk, the
January 2019 Constitutional Court verdict was delivered by a
panel of judges who were handpicked and largely considered loyal
to outgoing president, Joseph Kabila. A report by Signal Room,
Signal Risks’ analysis platform, states that this decision effectively
nullified a petition by second-placed candidate and Lamuka
coalition flagbearer, Fayulu, who rejected the results.
Fayulu’s claims that he won the election were backed by data
from separate sources that were distributed by the New York-
based Congo Research Group (CRG) on 16 January 2019. Both
www.africanmining.co.za