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Zaire The Presidency
Mobutu deserves the label presidential monarch
not
simply because of style, such as his use of the
capitalized, plural
pronoun We, but also because under Mobutu the
Zairian state
has been dominated by the institution of the presidency,
which
controls a huge share of public expenditure. The "reforms"
announced in 1990, according to which the president would
be "above
politics," only reinforced the long-term trend toward an
ever more
powerful executive office of the president.
It should be stressed that the overdevelopment of the
presidency occurred entirely under Mobutu. The Fundamental
Law (Loi
Fondamentale), or provisional constitution, of 1960 was
based on
the Belgian constitution. Power was vested in the
parliament. Like
a European constitutional monarch, the president had very
limited
powers, although his role in a constitutional crisis could
be
substantial. The 1964 constitution--known as the
Constitution of
Luluabourg (Luluabourg is now Kananga)--provided for an
executive
presidency that coexisted with cabinet government, under
the prime
minister. When Mobutu seized power in 1965, he initially
continued
this arrangement, serving as president while Colonel
Léonard
Mulamba was prime minister, heading a nonparty cabinet,
formally
called the National Executive Council.
The first step in building a more powerful presidency
came in
October 1966, when Mobutu dismissed the popular Mulamba.
Rather
than name a new prime minister, he absorbed the functions
of that
position into those of the president.
The constitution of 1967 formalized the primacy of the
presidency. Under its provisions, the role of the
ministers was
simply to execute the decisions and policies of the
president.
During 1977-79 and again in the late 1980s, Mobutu named
prime
ministers, but they were little more than vice chairmen of
the
cabinet, outranked by the president, who was also a
member.
At the same time, Mobutu was increasing the
capabilities of the
office of the president. In November 1966, he created the
General
Secretariat of the Presidency. The secretariat comprised
three
general directorates (directions générales):
economic,
commercial, and cultural affairs; juridical and
administrative
affairs; and mines and energy. Some of the leading
political
figures of the Second Republic first emerged as members of
the
secretariat.
In October 1967, this small secretariat was transformed
into
the Bureau of the Presidency of the Republic and given
responsibility for "a permanent mission of studies and of
conceptualization, of technical coordination and of
liaison between
the public institutions and their organs." It comprised a
director
and four "colleges of counsellors," the fourth one being
charged
with "social and cultural problems." The new body,
composed
entirely of university graduates, gave Mobutu a higher
level of
expertise than that available through the cabinet. Perhaps
more
importantly, it gave him a means of co-opting young men,
often of
radical views, who might otherwise have found their
careers blocked
by the "old" independence-era politicians. Playing off
these two
groups against one another proved an effective
divide-and-rule
tactic.
The capabilities of the presidency were further
enhanced by the
creation of military services directly attached to the
presidency.
The maison militaire, or personal military staff of
the
president, and the Special Presidential Brigade--later,
Special
Presidential Division (Division Spéciale
Présidentielle--DSP)--were
loyal to the president, even more so than the armed forces
in
general.
The next major change in the position of the president
came
with the 1974 constitution, drafted by the presidency and
approved
by the MPR Political Bureau and the rubber-stamp
legislature,
formally known as the National Legislative Council, by
acclamation.
According to Article 28 of this constitution, Zaire was to
have "a
single institution, the MPR, incarnated by its President."
Article
30 provided that the "President of the MPR is ex
officio
President of the Republic, and holds the plenitude of
power to
exercise. He presides over the Political Bureau, the
Council of
Ministers, the Legislature, and the Judicial Council." The
president was to be elected by direct popular vote to a
seven-year
term and could serve an unlimited number of terms.
The Transitional Act of August 1992 created a
parliamentary
system. Mobutu, as president, was to remain head of state
but was
intended to serve as a figurehead with ceremonial rather
than real
executive powers. Mobutu refused to accept the validity of
the new
document, however, and continued to wield power as before,
using
control of the military, media, central bank, and state
enterprises
to his advantage. It remains to be seen what the role of
the
president will be in the new transitional constitution on
which
both pro-Mobutu and anti-Mobutu forces reportedly agreed
in late
1993. It seems clear, however, that Mobutu would never
voluntarily
step aside and allow himself to be shunted off to a
strictly
ceremonial role.
Data as of December 1993
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