DRC Elections 2011 Watch: 1) WikiLeaks : Joseph Kabila, Augustin Katumba Mwange and Dan Gertler ; 2) Breaking News: Tshisekedi files to run for president; 3) Bipolar opposition: Fatima Group vs. Sultani Group; and 4) Zero Tolerance: Postal Service CEO Jean-Pierre Muhondo thrown in Makala Prison for stealing more than $3m

1) WikiLeaks: Joseph Kabila, Augustin Katumba Mwange and Dan Gertler

Augustin Katumba Mwanke

Photo: Le Soft Numérique

(Credits)

A cable created on December 14, 2009, by the US Kinshasa Embassy comments on the resignation by Augustin Katumba Mwange as secretary general of Kabila’s political cartel then known as "Alliance de la Majorité Présidentielle (AMP)." Katumba, a Katangan and a longtime key powerbroker in the Kabila regime, is described in the cable as “a kind of shady, even nefarious figure within Kabila’s inner circle,” who “is believed to manage much of Kabila’s personal fortune.”

The cable also alleges that Katumba may “have significant health problems. He spent several weeks in South Africa earlier this year for medical treatment.  The nature of his health problems is not known.  Some observers, however, believe he is HIV positive. This theory would seem bolstered by his emaciated physical appearance.”

Katumba, the cable further alleges, “is known to be close to Israeli citizen Dan Gertler, a mysterious trader in precious minerals who, according to some sources, lends Kabila his private jet for trips abroad.”

In a description of Kabila’s entourage eerily reminiscent of Jason Stearns’s hypothesis of the “Logic of Disorder in Kinshasa,” the cable concludes:

“While the removal of Augustin Katumba as head of the AMP is a significant change in the leadership hierarchy, his demotion may not signal permanent exclusion from Kabila's inner circle, nor does it follow that he will exercise less influence vis-a-vis his boss.  Kabila, as Congolese leaders past, routinely rotates his followers in and out of positions and closer or farther from the center of power.  This juggling may keep potential rivals from consolidating their authority by maintaining the established patron-client relationship.  With Kabila's focus turning more toward his reelection campaign, more changes are sure to follow.”

2) Breaking News: Etienne Tshisekedi files to run for President

Etienne Tshisekedi

Filing to run for DRC president

CENI Headquarters, Kinshasa, Gombe Commune (downtown)

Monday, September 5, 2011

Photo: John Bompengo/Radio Okapi

(Credits)

Accompanied by thousands of his followers and the opposition leaders backing him as their “common presidential candidate,” Etienne Tshisekedi went this Monday to CENI headquarters to file to run for President.

Speaking to the press afterwards, Tshisekedi stated:

“A group [of the opposition] freely took a stance for my candidacy; but there was another group which, rightly, either has laid down conditions or was reluctant. As I’m a democrat, I respect the opinions of all. (…) However, I have to put an end to this process of consultation [between oppositions parties].”

Tshisekedi was alluding to the recent bipolar division of the opposition between two groups: 1) The Fatima Group, which is also called the “Dynamique Tshisekedi Président” (DTP) that backs the presidential bid of Tshisekedi; and 2) The Sultani Group, or the “Cadre de Concertation de l’Opposition” (CCO). The CCO wants elaborate consultations between opposition parties over their respective platforms and programs before choosing a presidential candidate. Kengo, a CCO participant, even floated the idea of holding opposition primaries.

Kamerhe, MP Thomas Luhaka (MLC), Léon Kengo wa Dondo, and Dr. Oscar Kashala belong to the Sultani Group.

These groups are named after the venues where their crucial meetings took place: the conference halls of Notre Dame de Fatima Parish and of Sultani Hotel—both located in the Gombe Commune (downtown Kinshasa).

More about the rift between these two groups below.

3) Bipolar opposition: Fatima Group vs. Sultani Group

MP Jean-Claude Vuemba Luzamba

Chairman,  Mouvement du Peuple Congolais pour la République (MPCR)

Leading member of the Pro-Tshisekedi Fatima Group

(Credits) 

Squaring the circle, as the Kinshasa daily La Prosperité recently quipped about the unending squabble over a common opposition candidate, is the only apt metaphor to describe the rift tearing opposition leaders and their political parties.

This rift has crystallized around two groups now being referred to by the opposition and the media as “Fatima Group” and “Sultani Group.”

Etienne Tshisekedi, backed by the Fatima Group (around 80 smaller parties plus the UDPS), has just filed to run for president. It’s announced that Vital Kamerhe and Léon Kengo wa Dondo will also file to run for president this week.

Not content to stop at their division, these two groups have now resorted to lobbing verbal assaults at each other in newsprints and on prime-time TV.

The latest in those donnybrooks is the interview La Prospérité published this Monday ( August 5) of MP Jean-Claude Vuemba Luzamba, leader of the Mouvement du Peuple Congolais pour la République (MPCR).

The interview reveals the following:

a) MP Vuemba, who hails from the Bas-Congo Province, has turned into the political enemy of MP Ne Mwanda Nsemi, also a native of Bas-Congo and leader of the banned Bundu dia Mayala, for the latter’s support for Kamerhe in their province;

b) On the reluctance of Kamerhe and Kengo to endorse Tshisekedi as president, MP Vuemba, in so many words, accused them of being pro-Kabila opportunists masquerading as opposition leaders (a conspiracy theory rampant in the rank and file of the opposition): “We have now come to realize that some friends wanted to bamboozle the big family of the Opposition into declaring them opposition presidential candidates.”

Commenting namely on Kamerhe and Kengo, MP Vuemba said:

“Kamerhe has just arrived on the scene, not even six months ago. You’re not going to request that Tshisekedi receive [the preconditions voiced by] him. What’s President Kamerhe’s [political] worth at the present moment? (…) Kengo wa Dongo was an independent until about fifteen days ago when he launched his political party.”

Someone recently asked me to place a bet on the upcoming presidential election in the DRC—granted that these elections are held on November 28 as planned, as serious snags have now arisen (see here and here, courtesy of Mel in her comment on my post of September 3). I said Kabila will win hands down. And these quarrels seem to confirm my bet.

4) Zero Tolerance: Postal Service CEO Jean-Pierre Muhondo wa Shabalala thrown in Makala Prison for stealing more than $3m

Jean-Pierre Muhondo wa Shabalala

Disgraced thieving CEO of SCPT 

(Credits)

The opposition and “Radio-Trottoir” (grapevine) often mock Kabila’s anti-graft campaign called “Zero Tolerance” as more often than not only small fish are caught in its net. This time around, it seems that a sizeable fish has been caught.

Jean-Pierre Muhondo wa Shabalala, CEO of the woebegone Société Commerciale de Poste et de Télécommunication (SCPT), has just been nabbed and thrown into Kinshasa Makala Prison for stealing more than $3m of the paltry $8m the government borrowed from local banks to transition from the  expensive Internet access by satellite to fiber optic speed.

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: 1) WikiLeaks: Ambassador William J. Garvelink advises against Kengo’s high-level meetings during Washington visit (2010); 2) CENI opens central server to opposition; and 3) Bana-Congo put the fear of God into Congolese soukouss musicians

1) WikiLeaks: Ambassador William J. Garvelink advises against Kengo’s high-level meetings during Washington DC visit (2010)

Senate President Léon Kengo wa Dondo

(Credits)

The summary of a cable created on January 20, 2010 by the US Kinshasa Embassy and titled “Senate President Kengo’s Ouvertures to the U.S.- What’s the Old Fox up to now?” reads:

“Senate President Kengo wa Dondo has unexpectedly approached United States diplomats, in Kinshasa and at the AU in Addis Ababa (reftels), to request assistance in facilitating meetings with senior USG officials during an upcoming trip to Washington.  One of the Congo's most astute politicians, Kengo is the only oppositionist to hold a senior position in the GDRC [Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo].  We suspect he may be testing the waters to see if the U.S. will support him in connection with a possible run for the presidency in 2011.  We recommend that Department not arrange meetings for Kengo without the knowledge of the DRC embassy in Washington (which Kengo does not want) as Kengo may wish to embarrass Kabila, or even the U.S.  Although possibly discredited by his long association with late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and handicapped by his ethnic background (European father and Rwandan Tutsi mother), Kengo may eye an historic opportunity to lead the dispirited, rudderless opposition lest the increasingly unpopular Kabila wins the 2011 race by default.  We are skeptical Kengo will capture voters' imagination in 2011 but Congolese politics is nothing if not unpredictable.”

The prospective analysis of Ambassador was uncannily right and, in this case, it proved prophetic. Since the date of the creation of this cable, Léon Kengo wa Dondo: A) has launched a political party, the Union des Forces du Changement (UFC) that held a mass rally at Kinshasa Stade des Martyrs on July 24, and B) is among the presidential contenders.

2) Fallout of UDPS urban guerrilla campaign of mass action: CENI opens its central server to opposition

Jacques N’Djoli Eseng’Ekeli

CENI Deputy Chairman

Photo : Le Soft Numérique

(Credits)

At first blush, it’d seem that the UDPS campaign of mass harassment of CENI has somehow paid off. Before the smoke of tear gas fired by riot cops at UDPS demonstrators had cleared out in downtown Kinshasa, Jacques N’Djoli Eseng’Ekeli, CENI deputy chairman, announced, at the weekly press briefing of the national independent election commission held on Thursdays, access to its electoral rolls as well as opening the central server to the opposition and Kabila’s camp. “The opposition, as well as the entire Congolese nation, will have access to the electoral roll,” N’Djoli stated.

But the devil is in the details, as the saying goes. And the details N’Djoli gave will in no way allay the opposition politicians’ suspicion—particularly the deeply-entrenched anti-CENI bias harbored by UDPS secretary general, Jacquemain Shabani.

N’Djoli said that the “law forces CENI to publish these lists 30 days ahead of the electoral campaign.” According to Le Potentiel, this means that these rolls will be published on September 28. Now, the problem is that the opposition wants to access the central server before the treatment of the electoral rolls and its publication by CENI.

As regards the access to the central server, N’Djoli only reiterated what CENI chairman Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda had said on August 21, in his response to the opposition memorandum. Both the opposition and the incumbent’s camp have each to designate each 2 IT experts to whom “would be clarified the concerns regarding the utilization of the central server and its connected applications.” Rev Mulunda had also extended an invitation to “5 leaders of the opposition and 5 leaders of the Majority to visit the national data treatment center and the facilities of data transmission using VSAT technology.”

And in his response to the opposition, Rev Mulunda had made perfectly clear that there’s one element that is non-negotiable: “the need to safeguard the independence of CENI, expression and overt will of the constitution legislators as asserted by Article 211 of the Constitution.”

In Rev Mulunda’s mind, anything that doesn’t follow the letter and spirit of the Constitution would amount to meddling with the independence of CENI.

3) Bana-Congo put the fear of God into Congolese soukouss musicians

Noël Ngiama Makanda aka Werrason aka Le-Roi-de-la-forêt aka Igwe-de-la-jungle aka Ya-Ngiama aka Mbonge aka Sima-Ekoli

Congolese Soukouss star

(Poster)

Werrason is one of the most successful and prolific soukouss musicians of DRC. His club, La Zamba Playa, where his band rehearses, was set ablaze by Jean-Pierre Bemba’s supporters on July 26, 2006, for writing pro-Kabila songs and appearing at PPRD rallies during the presidential campaign.

Werrason recently complained on Kinshasa TV that “we [Papa Wemba, Tshala Mwana, Koffi Olomide, JB Mpiana, etc.] can no longer play in Europe” as these musicians are now systematically and violently attacked by the Congolese diaspora opposition goons known as “Bana-Congo”—whom I call “informal sovereigns” (Thomas Blom Hansen) or “Doppelgänger anticitizens” (Comaroff and Comaroff)—who are the bane of any Congolese appearing on their list of accursed “Josephites” (or supporters of Joseph Kabila).

According to the article of the e-zine LeSoftonline quoted above, the Bana-Congo have achieved in putting the fear of God into Congolese soukouss musicians. These days, in Kinshasa, whenever pro-Kabila politicians invite musicians to play at the opening of their rallies, no one shows up—despite the lucrative contracts this usually obtain. With the exception of musicians like Koffi Olomide, who has officially enrolled in Kabila’s PPRD (and thereby barring himself from European concert venues); emerging bands “who have nothing to lose and everything to gain”; and Christian soukouss bands nobody would dare to attack for fear of retribution from the God of hosts! Those who still show up at pro-Kabila rallies despite Bana-Congo’s fatwas are fair game in Europe: “Upon landing at the first [European] airport, you are assured of being slapped by the first group of Bana-Congo that spots you, if they don’t make you swallow your passport.”

Things have been so bad lately for Congolese musicians on their tours overseas that some of them have become “turncoats.” Thus, claims LeSoftonline, Werrason was recently seen in Canada marching with Congolese women protesting against rapes in eastern DRC—which is not anti-Kabila activity per se, but, LeSoftonline thinks that this appearance might have “laundered” Werrason's past and ingratiated him with Bana-Congo. And the proof of this change was that the Bana-Congo let him perform unmolested.

But this assessment is contradicted by Freddy Mulongo, one of the intellectual forces behind the Bana-Congo, who wrote in a stinging op-ed published August 18:

“Down with a chameleon artist of the ilk of Werrason Sima Ekoli who acts modestly when he’s in Europe and changes into a pyromaniac when he’s in Kinshasa, prancing on all TV studios belonging to the Josephites to attack resisters-patriots-combatants…”

When it comes to politics, Congolese musicians have historically been caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Under Mobutu, Tabu Ley Rochereau pulled a daring stunt by writing a song for executed rebel leader Pierre Mulele. He was personally confronted by Mobutu and never ever again dared to pull that one. Franco Luambo Makiadi obviously sang for Lumumba before Mobutu’s takeover; after which, he turned into Mobutu’s patented griot. The only Congolese who had successfully resisted Mobutu’s pressure to produce praise songs was Joseph Kabasele aka Jeff Kalle.

Besides, it doesn’t help musicians’ case when one of them, namely Papa Wemba, claims ad nauseum with a straight face that “musicians are like prostitutes” and can’t be expected to take political stances! Meaning that they can sing for the highest bidding politician!

A “Mwana-Congo” Leader seeking “cooperation” from Brussels riot cops 

Bana-Congo wanted to go into the blocked path to an Ixelles shopping mall

DRC First Lady Olive Lembe was meeting Congolese businesswomen at the mall

Brussels, September 2007

(Credits)   

I have described, here and there on this blog, the M.O. utilized by Bana-Congo. Their methods have evolved over the years; and so far 6 of these have been identified as the template by European metropolitan police (especially in London, Brussels, and Paris):

a) The first method is used with isolated individuals in the streets: 1) they surround their unsuspecting victim in the street; 2) drag him/her in a dark alley; 3) set up a kangaroo court, with one of the muggers playing the role of a pro-bono defense attorney; 4) then a “judge” renders a guilty verdict and a sentence that usually entails stripping naked the victim, beating him/her (though so far there had been no female victims), and 4) posting on the internet the videos of the mugging.

b) The second method is used at concert or conference venues. A flashmob of Bana-Congo would suddenly materialize, attack the place, and suddenly set upon whoever is declared a “Rwandan infiltrated agent” (that is, any pro-Kabila politician or senior government official).

c) The third method is attacks at the residences of Congolese ambassadors and diplomats (one attempt thus far, at the residence of Kinshasa ambassador in London).

d) The fourth method is mass demonstration whenever Kabila or a high-ranking Congolese official visits a European capital; or whenever there are important events happening in the Congo.

e) Cyberattacks: two years ago or thereabout, Bana-Congo attacked the internet portal of the DRC embassy in Washington DC—smearing porn photos on its homepage.

This dangerous antidemocratic trend is encouraged by radical opposition politicians and opinion-makers like Honoré Ngbanda, Freddy Mulongo, and others. Known Bana-Congo gang leaders organizing these “blackbloc”-type direct actions on the ground in Europe are Didier Ramazani, Jean Pierre Samba Tele, and Henri Muke Disuishe, who are identified by intelligence services of European police. Some of them, like Didier Ramazani, have spent months in Belgian prisons for torching vehicles at violent anti-Kabila demos.

Doppelgänger anticitizen Didier Ramazani Ali

Leader of the Bana-Congo in Belgium

Solo picketing in Brussels

(Credits)

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: 1) WikiLeaks: Transitional Foreign Minister Antoine Ghonda to Ambassador Roger Meece: Museveni ordered Bemba to fire me; and 2) ANCC Jean Andeka Djamba makes history: First candidate to file to run for president

1) WikiLeaks: Transitional Foreign Minister Antoine Ghonda to Ambassador Roger Meece: Museveni ordered Bemba to fire me!

Antoine Ghonda 

DRC Transitional Foreign Minister (June 30, 2003-July 23, 2004)

Then MLC member

Photo: AFP

(Credits)

***

Two cables created by the US Kinshasa Embassy are among the mass of cables recently dumped by WikiLeaks. Those two cables will soon cause a hoo-ha in the tense pre-electoral atmosphere prevailing now in the DRC: a) A cable created on August 9, 2004, that has the then just fired Transitional Foreign Minister Antoine Ghonda, an MLC member appointed to government by Jean-Pierre Bemba, who went to see then US Ambassador Roger Meece (currently UN Secretary General Special Representative to the DRC and head of MONUSCO); and b) a cable created on October 27, 2004, that recounts a meeting between Etienne Tshisekedi's political adviser Jean-Joseph Mukendi and the Embassy's political officer.

a) The first cable--with the subject heading: "Former FM Ghonda discusses his dismissal"--confirms the "nationalist" instinct of the Congolese who were convinced that the Transitional government was made of a bunch of recreants and treasonable bandits whose sole motive was to plunder and, in order to achieve this aim, had transformed their own country into a franchise micro-managed from Kampala and Kigali.

After being fired by Bemba on July 23, US-educated Ghonda went to see Ambassador Meece to update him on the reasons behind his dismissal by Bemba (a previous cable said that Ghonda was expecting being fired): 1) Ghonda's insistence to first report to Kabila as head of state before briefing Bemba on important business at his ministry; 2) his refusal to back up Bemba's illegal purchase of an airplane belonging to Charles Taylor; and 3) crossing President Yoweri Museveni in his designs over the Congo. In fact, Ghonda "believes that undoubtedly the Museveni complaint was a factor leading to Bemba's decision to change Foreign Ministers."   

b) The second cable--with the subject heading: "Opposition figure Tshisekedi keeping his options open"-- is more damning as it demonstrates that even a vestigial opposition leader like Tshisekedi would readily send his "close [political] adviser" Jean-Joseph Mukendi to discuss sensitive plans involving his party and his country with an embassy's political officer (an underling) of a foreign power. This is a huge scandal Tshisekedi and Mukendi have on their hands. 

WikiLeaks is definitely a treasure trove for the recent history of the Congo--an episode that would have otherwise been irretrievably lost.   

 Jean-Joseph Mukendi

Tshisekedi's Political adviser

(Credits)

 2) ANCC Jean Andeka Djamba makes history: First candidate to file to run for president

Jean Andeka Djamba

Chairman of Alliance des Nationalistes Croyants Congolais (ANCC)

Filing to run for president

Kinshasa, CENI headquarters

Friday, August 2, 2011

Photo: John Bompengo/Radio Okapi

(Credits)

ANCC chairman Jean Andeka Djamba made history on Friday, August 2, by being the first candidate to file to run for president at the national headquarters of CENI in Kinshasa. Andeka is most certainly a true believer as the name of his party indicates ("croyants" = believers) to bet $50,000 of non-refundable deposit on this fool's errand.

Now, the comment I'm about to make has nothing to do with politics, it's about fashion, if that. If you look closely at the sleeve of the presidential candidate's suit, just above where the shirt sticks out, you'll notice that it still has the store tag of the designer's griffe. Congolese keep that tag to telegraph to people around them that they can afford to shop at expensive European boutiques! I've even seen young women and men keep the price tag at the collar of their blouses, shirts, and jeans to show that they weren't bought at some cheap thrift store...

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