Ruins of MOBUTU SESEKO’S Mansion-Former Congo dictator Mobutu Seseseko’s mansion is now home to rats, bats, snakes and birds. Lesson to greedy rulers
This is the House of the former Zaire [now DRC] dictator, Field Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko Kukungbendu Wazabanga.
The magnificent structure constructed on a large expanse of land [equivalent to a minimal game park] was built in his home village called Gbadolite at the cost £100m.
In 1960, the year the DRC secured independence from Belgium, Gbadolite was an unremarkable village of 1,700 souls. If not for Mobutu, chances are it would have remained that way. It is situated in the DRC’s far north and enveloped in dense rainforest. It was never an obvious choice to be the beneficiary of generous attention from nation builders. Yet, Gbadolite’s most famous son had other plans, and they were mesmerizingly grand. Mobutu constructed two lavish palaces—one for hosting affairs of state and a private residence at Kawele, seven miles outside the town—and a village of Chinese pagodas. These shrines were stuffed with Italian marble, antique French furniture, Venetian chandeliers, expensive tapestries, and monogrammed silver cutlery. Fashionable chefs, Parisian patisserie, and Belgian mussels were flown in from the capital cities of Europe.
It was considered the “epitome of decor and elegance” in Zaire and beyond. The super structure was decorated with Italian marble, Katangese high-karate gold plated doors and windows, Spanish floor tiles, automatic American air conditioning, Isreali state-of-the-art communication systems, king-size swimming pool, a private airport control tower, 3-4 inch bullet-proof glassware, 5 presidential suites, 6 Jacuzzis and surrounded by a mini game park full of all kinds of wildlife, including Indian tigers.
Gbadolite’s airstrip was extended to accommodate a Concorde, which Mobutu would charter from Air France. The cellars burst with thousands of bottles of pink champagne and vintage wine. It took almost 1,000 expensively uniformed staff to keep the palaces shipshape; guests included Pope John Paul II, Boutros Boutros Ghali, several French presidents, and a ‘who’s who’ of questionable businessmen. One Congolese politician has estimated that Mobutu spent up to $400 million on his Gbadolite palaces.
Mobutu heaped further largesse upon the town he created. He built a luxury hotel (owned by the Mobutu family) to house visiting dignitaries and a hydroelectric plant to supply Gbadolite with constant electricity. He established a Coca-Cola bottling factory as banks and other businesses rushed to set up branches in the town. As Mobutu’s reign continued and the DRC’s economy crumbled, Gbadolite thrived.
The town declined along with the dictator. By the mid-1990s Mobutu was sick with cancer and had more or less abandoned Kinshasa, the nation’s capital, to unreliable subordinates, preferring to spend his time in comfort in Gbadolite surrounded by his family. On top of decades of mismanagement, Mobutu’s steady withdrawal from public life helped create a vacuum into which stepped Laurent-Désiré Kabila, the leader of the rebellion against Mobutu. Bolstered by the support of Rwanda and Uganda, Kabila swept through Congo from the east, forced the Mobutu family into a Moroccan exile, and seized control of the country in 1997.
The structure, which at the time of Mobutu’s death was ranked one of the most magnificent private castles ever owned by a sitting Head of State, is now home to wild rats, tropical snakes, gecko lizards, mega snails, scorpions, birds and thousands of wild insects.
Dictators should learn from this. Where are Mobutu’s kids to take over their father’s estate?
So shall it be for all leaders who looted public resources unless they change and return their loots to public
coffers.
CREDIT: The African Voice
