By Darious Kapembwa
CONGOLESE politician and businessman Moise Katumbi has urged authorities in that country to learn from Zambia and organise independent, neutral and impartial elections.
And Katumbi’s supporters in villages on the Pedicle Road in the border town of Mokambo say Hakainde Hichilema’s electoral victory over incumbent Edgar Lungu has given them belief that Katumbi can also win the Congolese elections due in 2023.
In his congratulatory message to Hichilema who won last Thursday’s election with a landslide margin, Katumbi wrote: “congratulations to His Excellence Hichilema for his great victory and to President Edgar Lungu for his fair play.”
He called for fair elections in his country, adding that the Zambian situation had inspired him.
“As in Zambia, DRC needs proper elections organised by an independent, neutral and impartial Independent National Election Commission (CENI). Our citizens deserve to choose their leaders freely,” said Katumbi.
His followers too got determined now that Zambia had yet again shown the way.
“Yeah! We are determined. This time around to see a free and fair election in our country. We also want to see leaders coming from the choice of the people and not the other round,” said Congolese trader, Cornelius Pax.
Katumbi’s campaign flags from 2018 still fly high on trees at Kilata and surrounding villages in Mokambo where his support base got fired up by the Zambian election outcome.
“Naifwe imwe mwebena Zambia mwatupela (equally for us, you the Zambians have given us an) example that indeed army and military tanks on the streets cannot stop the people’s will. The election of Mr Hichilema is historical in that as a neighbouring country we can learn something starting from the way watchdog institutions in Zambia put pressure on the authorities to respect the people’s will. Indeed, we shall also make sure that Moise makes it,” added Gabriel Mulumba, a staunch Katumbi supporter in Mokambo.
Katumbi, who was a frontrunner to challenge then president Joseph Kabila, was prevented from running in the December 30, 2018 elections by the Kabila administration.
His party then joined the Lamuka Coalition that fielded a single candidate, Martin Fayulu, who narrowly lost to Felix Tshisekedi in the election observers that included the powerful Catholic Church disputed.
Following Kabila’s defeat, Katumbi, the former Katanga Province governor who was once prevented from entering the country by the previous administration, has returned.
And he is viewed by many as Tshisekedi’s main challenger in the next general election.
His popularity is attributed to the transformation of the mineral-rich Katanga region when he became governor in 2007.
Katumbi’s governance has been credited with bringing economic revival to the province through developing infrastructure, encouraging foreign investment with tax breaks and reduced government procedures, and targeting corruption.
Through his efforts as governor, local taxes increased from US $80 million in 2007 to more than US $3 billion in 2014.
Annual revenues increased from 100 million in 2007 to 1.5 billion by 2013.
According to reports in Congo, majority of the Congolese population support him because when he took office as governor, Katumbi implemented an export ban for raw minerals, including cobalt; forcing major mining companies to either build processing plants in the province or pay a tax on the exported concentrate.
Under Katumbi, copper production increased from 8,000 metric tonnes in 2006 to more than one million tonnes in 2014.
Along with mining, he is also credited for focusing on expanding other areas of the province’s economy, including the service industry, energy and agriculture.
He offered both free farmland and tax breaks for farmers to encourage food production.
Reliance on imported food decreased to 68 per cent between 2006 and 2011.
In 2014, the amount of food grown locally had tripled.
Katumbi however, resigned as governor in 2015 and formed the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy.
In his home village, Katumbi has built public infrastructure from primary and secondary schools to a universities and hospitals; and supports over 12,000 school going children.
He also pays doctors and tutors working there to eradicate illiteracy in the villages.
His support base has fundamentally grown nationwide since he returned from exile, with the Congolese population hoping that he is allowed to freely contest in the next elections.