DRC vote could be a threat to Africa’s stability: Katumbi Moise Katumbi

Exiled Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) presidential aspirant Moïse Katumbi has given the clearest indication yet that results of this year’s elections will trigger instability in the vast central African nation — a situation he fears may have ripple effects on the region as well as the continent.

Katumbi, who now lives in Belgium, has been prevented from contesting the December 23 election.

Speaking in Johannesburg last week, he warned that instability in the DRC would have a spiral effect on the entire southern African region and beyond.

The country’s citizens are scheduled to go to the polls in December amid disputes arising from the disqualification and blocking of other presidential aspirants.

Katumbi, the former governor of Katanga province in the southern DRC, claimed his plane was prevented from landing in the country, adding that he was stopped from crossing the border from Zambia to enter the country and fill in the nomination forms.

He said all he wanted was to contest the elections, and win or lose, he would accept the outcome.

Katumbi has become the second high-profile political figure, after former vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba, to issue a strong warning about potential instability in the DRC if there is a disputed election result.

He has since urged the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) not to allow the situation in the Congo to degenerate to levels that will be difficult to control.

“Not agreeing on what is supposed to be done is really a big problem, and that is why I am appealing to the Sadc – because they don’t have to keep quiet about the situation in the Congo,” he said, adding that there was a lot at stake if peace broke down irretrievably.

“They [Sadc] don’t have to wait until things become bad for them to intervene. This is the right time to intervene, for the stability of the Sadc region.”

There is a likelihood that the result in the DRC will be disputed after Katumbi, Bemba and four others were not allowed to contest. The four include three former prime ministers – Samy Badibanga, Adolphe Muzito and Antoine Gizenga — and the only woman candidate, Marie-Josée Ifoku Mputa Mpunga.

Further disputes, according to Katumbi, will arise from the use of the voting machines, which civil society and opposition political parties have rejected.

Experts have indicated that the voting machines, procured from South Korea, are not a good mechanism to use in the DRC, given that the country’s projected voting population of 46 million has problems with electricity supply and stable high-speed internet — both important factors in ensuring the successful use of the machines.

The voting machines have an estimated 10-hour battery life but when in use, the lifespan drops to about three hours.

Katumbi said the reasons for procuring the voting machines had everything to do with the massive plunder of national resources and an attempt to rig elections in favour of the ruling party nominee, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.

“The voting machines have been used to steal money from the Congolese government,” he said.

“The price of that machinery is $400 each. The SADC can do its own investigation. They [the Congolese government] charge $1 500 per machine. They got $150 million to purchase the machines but $110 million has gone missing.”

Katumbi pointed to Argentina and Iraq as examples of places where the machines had failed to operate, saying this, along with the fact that they had not been tested, was a legitimate reason for not using them in the DRC.

He said the funds used to buy the machines should have been channelled to providing services such as roads and medicines, and improving water supply. — AFP

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