about to appoint Georges Buse, sixtiish, as prime minister.
Geoges Buse was the chief of staff of Laurent Kabila, the assassinated
former president and father of the incumbent.
Buse, aged between 65-68, is from a prominent family of Kisangani, the
provincial capital of Orientale Province.
Two of Buse's young brothers achieved national notoriety in their own right:
1) One was the the auxiliary bishop of the Catholic diocese of
Kisangani. It's rumored he didn't make to full bishop because he's a
womanizer who's fathered a number of kids. A bizarre pitfall in a
country where virtually every single Catholic priest or prelate has a
common-law wife with kids. The late Cardinal Malula was a polygamist
with children. And credible Congolese Catholic sources claim that
Kinshasa Laurent Cardinal Mosengwo Pasinya carried out relationships
with his nieces that can only be described as sexual or emotional
affairs; and
2) Jean-Pierre "JP" Buse, a singer of the soukous band "Zaiko." JP has
since moved to Canada where he's a born-again evangelical preacher.
Georges Buse is an engineer who had a successful career as a
procurement officer of the Congolese mining giant "Gecamines" in
Kolwezi and Lubumbashi, in the Katanga Province, before being
appointed chief of staff of Laurent Kabila.
It's rumored Buse got appointed presidential chief of staff on the
sole merit that he was married to the late president's niece.
It's also alleged that Georges Buse, who until a few days ago worked
in South Africa as a consultant has since been recalled to Kinshasa in
anticipation of the nomination.
Astonishingly, this rumor has put a damper on Orientale Province
natives' mood. I spoke to several of them in the past two weeks in
Kinshasa.
They point out that Buse, having had his career in Katanga, is more of
a Katangan than a native from Orientale Province. His wife, as I just
mentioned, is from the Katangan presidential family. Besides, last
time he was in charge as Laurent Kabila's chief of staff, he did very
little to favor other natives of Orientale Province; at times even
vetoing their appointments.
According to conventional wisdom, if this rumor turns out to be true,
then Kabila, uncharacterically, has gone back to his father's
entourage to find a seasoned skipper to steer him through the rough
seas of his second presidential term. A huge disappointment. People
were expecting him to show cojones by appointing someone totally new.
The appointment of Buse would instead evince Kabila's lack of
political imagination and creativity.
Creativity and imagination would have entailed appointing a WOMAN as
prime minister for a change!
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