In his remarkable report on his journey in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) published on 1.6.2021 by the online South African Daily Maverick, Dave Martin talked about the new DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and a current quasi-partner Moise Katumbi, a possible rival.
Tshisekedi is the son of the popular Opposition leader Ettiene Tshisekedi (1932 2017), the foremost opposition leader over decades. Though he served as Prime Minister under the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, he challenged him, as did Joseph Kabila. His son became President in January 2010 after disputed elections with irregularities, vote suppression and violence as well as the interference of armed groups. Felix Tshisekedi had entered into a deal with the outgoing President Joseph Kabila which ended in April 2021, when a new government was formed. Despite this link with Kabila, the President had removed or sidelined the former strongman’s allies.
He had also formed a loose alliance with the billionaire Moise Katumbi, a former Governor of Katanga. The son of a Greek Jew who had fled Rhodes island in 1938 and settled in Katanga and a Congolese woman of the Kazembe royalty of the Lunda, he became one of the richest men in the DRC and after Kabila, probably the most influential, according to “The Economist”.
He was the first democratically elected Katanga Governor from 2007 to 2015. His term was successful in reviving the province’s economy. He increased the copper output and banned raw material exports including cobalt, forcing companies to build processing plants in the country- something that Kaunda never succeeded with Zambia’s copper. Katumbi also encouraged food production, decreasing food imports.
Dave Martin perceives Katumbi as a rival for Tshisekedi at the next election. Neither man has a warlord past so he thinks – ‘nasty’ surprises apart – the DRC can look forward to a decade of relative political stability.
It is hard to conceive that the troubled Eastern districts in this huge country that is as large as Western Europe can be easily pacified, given its history and armed gangs. However, the hope of a better future is shared by others such as a Canadian enterprise that has invested heavily in a large copper mine at Kolwezi in Katanga. International companies must apply certain standards – and pay royalties and taxes, which the DRC government needs. Efforts to formalise the scattered cobalt mines may be hard to organize, but at least an effort is being made.
One can only wish the children of DRC’s 105 million a better future than the present.