of Radio France Internationale in Paris. Mamane has a mock chronicle
of a fictional African country he calls Republic of Gondwana--so named
after the Precambrian supercontinent--where anything goes, especially
when its mercurial president, aptly called Président-Fondateur, wakes
up on the wrong side of the bed. And these last few days, the DRC is
more and more resembling Mamane's Republic of Gondwana.
Consider the mudslinging now splattering major players within Kabila's
Presidential Majority... just days before a new government is formed.
On Sunday, as my two previous posts have chronicled, the newly
elected Kinois MP Gérard "Gécoco" Mulumba accused former Prime
Minister Adolphe Muzito of grand theft.
On Tuesday, Tshibangu Kalala, Muzito's attorney, called a press
conference to respond to the accusations leveled at the former Premier
by Gécoco. The problem with Kalala's statement is that it lacks
credibility and strength, the two most important characteristics of
robust denial. Furthermore, some of the arguments put forth by
Muzito's lawyer are in fact damning for the former prime
minister--like the one that alleges that one could build a real estate
empire after a career as a civil servant and a politician.
More importantly, there's also the oddness of referring to Muzito
throughout the statement as THE Prime Minister, while he's already
tendered his resignation!
The following is the full statement made by Tshibangu Kalala:
"Ladies and Gentlemen of the media:
Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito, whom I am representing in this case,
charged me to make, on his behalf, the following statement intended
for national and international public opinion.
For several days now, a public campaign of denigration and defamation,
highly mediatized, has been launched against Prime Minister Adolphe
Muzito by some Congolese political actors.
Respectful of the freedom of expression recognized and extended by the
Constitution and the laws of the DRC to all Congolese, and in his
capacity as head of the government of the Republic, he let the
interested parties quench their hatred and their jealousy, without
doing anything to stop them.
This campaign of destruction of the honor, dignity and reputation of
Prime Minister Muzito reached its climax in the evening of Sunday,
March 11, 2012, when MP [Gérard] Mulumba Nkongolo aka Gécoco had CCTV
television channel broadcast and comment on certain real estate
properties allegedly belonging to my client.
Generally speaking, I should point out that my client has been working
for several years and it is therefore normal that he should own real
estate properties.
Without involving ourselves in controversy at this stage and without
going into any details--details to which Prime Minister will soon
return-- MP Mulumba Nkongolo's statements call for the following
observations:
1) MP Mulumba Nkongolo aka Gécoco, who has appointed himself the
vigilante of the Republic, the witch hunter of the DRC and the teacher
of lessons on public morality in the DRC, didn't provide any proof
evidencing that all the buildings presented to the press belong to Mr.
Muzito and that they were built or renovated with money from public
treasury put to private use;
2) For example, one of the houses shown to the public by Mr. Mulumba
Nkongolo as belonging to the Prime Minister is instead a private
property that belongs to another public personality of the Republic
and that therefore has nothing to do with my client;
3) The house in the neighborhood of Mbanza-Lemba, close to Université
de Kinshasa, and the one in the GB neighborhood, are family properties
bought by my client since 1996, about 16 years ago, well before the
start of his political career, property he has renovated and valorized
right under the noses of all his neighbors;
4) Mr. Adolphe Muzito worked as a Finance Inspector for several years
prior to getting into politics; he was a Member of Parliament for 3
years; a Budget Minister for close to 2 years, and a Prime Minister
for nearly 4 years. (...)
It is therefore normal he should have the personal income to allow him
to enter into an entrepreneurial partnership in a real estate project,
as is the case with many other Congolese in the city of Kinshasa;
5) Mr. Mulumba Nkongolo didn't say, in order to justify his political
combat and his doggedness against Mr. Adolphe Muzito, whether the
latter is the sole Congolese to own a ranch in the suburb of Kinshasa.
Mr. Adolphe Muzito calls the particular attention of the public on the
moment chosen by Mr. Mulumba Nkongolo and his backers hiding in the
dark--since it's obvious that Mr. Mulumba aka Gécoco doens't carry out
alone his diabolical scheme--to launch this cruel campaign of
destruction of a political adversary, and on the violence of attacks
targeting him.
The chosen moment and the intent of this campaign are not innocent, to
the extent that had Mr. Mulumba Gécoco's intention been to defend
public interest and to seek the truth, he could have gone to a court
of law to denounce those facts instead of mobilizing the national
press to launch virulent attacks against my client.
It's clearly a machiavellian scheme of political destruction
orchestrated by the political adversaries of the Prime Minister, the
very members of his political family, on the eve of the appointment of
senior members of the institutions of the second legislature that has
just begun, to tarnish his image to the Congolese public's eye, to
politically destabilize him, to prevent him from holding public
office, and thus wreck his political career for good.
MP Mulumba Nkongolo aka Gécoco, having promised to publish in the near
future the list of about a hundred other houses of my client, located
as well here in Kinshasa as overseas, the Prime Minister is very
curious and in great hurry to find out about all these houses
attributed to him and awaits patiently and calmly the publication of
that list.
In light of this situation that gravely soils his honor, his
reputation and his dignity as a human being, a husband and a father
and a high-ranking political actor, the Prime Minister reserves the
right, in the coming days, to file a lawsuit against MP Mulumba
Nkongolo for defamation and damaging imputations in a court of law.
It should be stressed here that MP Mulumba Nkongolo has engaged in the
production of unlawful acts of serious gravity, not within and in
front of a microphone of his parliamentary assembly in the course of
his mandate, but on television shows, that is, in the streets of
Kinshasa.
We need to remind people here that the immunity due to parlementarians
wasn't designed for their comfort or their prestige. It wasn't
designed for the impunity of MPs who fall into delinquency and
dishonor their parliamentary function, an important function that
should be exercised with dignity and responsibility by noble people.
We do hope that the parliamentary assembly to which belongs MP Mulumba
Nkongolo will not hesitate to quickly waive his immunity so that he
could be answerable for his acts before the Congolese justice system.
Prime Minister Muzito ends [his statement] by solemnly stating that he
had carried out the high functions entrusted to him by the President
of the Republic with dignity, dedication and a heightened sense of
responsibility. The rest is all but calumny, jealousy, meanness and
tactical moves to eliminate a competent and loyal political rival.
Thank you."
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