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Zaire The National Executive Council
In Mobutu's Zaire, there is a parliament and a Council
of
Ministers, or cabinet, also known as the National
Executive
Council, but any formal resemblance to Western
parliamentary
democracy is misleading. Zaire's National Executive
Council is
responsible not to the parliament but rather to the
president.
According to the constitution of 1967, the president, as
chief of
the executive branch, named and revoked the ministers and
determined their respective powers. The ministers were
responsible
only to the president. In their departments, they did not
carry out
their own policy, but rather the program established and
the
decisions taken by the president of the republic. The
constitution
of 1974, which established the MPR as "the sole
institution" of the
republic, left the role of the National Executive Council
essentially unchanged. It gave the president of the MPR
the right
to name and dismiss the members of the National Executive
Council
as well as to fix the council's program of action and
supervise
policy implementation. Mobutu's control of the cabinet was
so firm
that in 1980 he had abolished ministerial interpellations
by
establishing the Central Committee as the new
decision-making body
within the MPR, which action also weakened the country's
parliament.
Nevertheless, the post of minister, and particularly
that of
prime minister, remained important despite the changes
made in the
cabinet's constitutional makeup. In part, the notion of
ministers
retained prestige from the European model, and ministerial
posts
were eagerly sought for that reason. Moreover, ministerial
posts
were major rewards for service to the patrimonial ruler,
as well as
providing the incumbent with opportunities for
self-enrichment.
Zaire's disastrous economic and social situation resulted
in part
from this system, which guaranteed that top functionaries
served
the president rather than the nation.
The cabinet was subjected to frequent reshuffles,
opening up
some posts and assuring that those clients kept on were
fully aware
that they could go the next time. In a typical cabinet,
all regions
of the country were represented, although Mobutu's home
region of
Équateur was overrepresented. Often a political exile was
"recuperated" and given a ministerial post. Few military
personnel
served as ministers. Mobutu personally retained control of
the
defense portfolio, and usually veterans' affairs as well,
until the
formation of the transitional government in May 1990. The
president's control of the National Executive Council and
his
attempt to use it to appease and undercut the opposition
were
clearly evident in the formation of a succession of
transitional
and coalition governments following the May 1990
announcement of
political pluralism.
Since March 1993, Zaire has had two cabinets. One is
headed by
Tshisekedi, elected by the CNS under the terms of the
Transitional
Act. This transitional government, the so-called
government of
national union, was reconfigured and broadened in
September 1993;
it consists of Tshisekedi as first state commissioner, or
prime
minister, and thirty-two state commissioners heading the
various
government ministries. The rival, Mobutu-appointed
government, the
so-called government of national salvation, is headed by
Birindwa
as prime minister, with three deputy prime ministers, and
twentyfive other ministers. The United States government (and
other
Western powers) have not recognized the Birindwa
government. Yet
the Tshisekedi government cannot truly govern because of
the
ability of Mobutu to obstruct its operations, including
using
troops to prevent the prime minister and his cabinet
ministers from
occupying government offices. Tshisekedi has been forced
to operate
from his home.
Data as of December 1993
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