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Zaire Toward Political Reconstruction
From 1965 to 1967, the Mobutist state set out to
establish its
authority by gradually dismantling the institutions of the
First
Republic and at the same time bringing about a substantial
measure
of centralization around the president. Although
parliament
continued to meet occasionally, its legislative powers
were reduced
to a mere ritual because key decisions were taken through
executive
decrees (ordonnances-lois). All political parties
were
dissolved and political activities banned, in line with
Mobutu's
promise that "for five years there will be no political
party
activity." By 1966 the twenty-one provincettes had
been
reduced to twelve and then to eight provinces plus the
capital,
which were redesignated as regions in 1972
(see
fig. 1).
They were
transformed into purely administrative entities whose
officials
were directly responsible to the central government and
whose
assemblies were consultative rather than legislative
bodies. After
the elimination of the office of prime minister in October
1966,
the presidency became the fulcrum of all executive power.
Most of the remnants of the Tshombist opposition were
quickly
absorbed into the state through various patronage
operations. Just
as quickly, summary justice disposed of the more obdurate
opponents
of the regime. On May 30, 1966, four key personalities of
the First
Republic, including former Prime Minister-designate
Évariste Kimba,
were charged with conspiring against the state, tried in a
parody
of justice, and publicly hanged in Kinshasa (formerly
Léopoldville). Threats to the regime nonetheless
persisted. Pockets
of insurgency continued to confront the regime with
serious
challenges to its authority in Kivu (since the early
1990s, divided
into Nord-Kivu, Sud-Kivu, and Maniema) and Haut-Zaïre
(formerly
Orientale Province). Months went by before these residual
areas of
dissidence were brought under control.
Meanwhile, rumors that Tshombe was plotting a comeback
from his
Spanish retreat hardened into ominous certainty when in
July 1966
some of Tshombe's former Katangan gendarmes, led by a
handful of
mercenaries, mutinied in Kisangani (formerly
Stanleyville). Two
months later, the gendarmes were finally brought to heel
after
French mercenary Bob Denard was persuaded to take the lead
in
crushing the mutiny. By July 1967, however, another major
mutiny
broke out in Kisangani, triggered by the news that
Tshombe's
airplane had been hijacked over the Mediterranean and
forced to
land in Algiers, where Tshombe was held prisoner. As the
rebels
were forced out of Kisangani by the ANC, they made their
way to
Bukavu, near the Rwandan border, which they held for three
months.
They unsuccessfully tried to fight back the attacks of the
ANC, but
by November, faced with imminent defeat, the entire group
crossed
the border into Rwanda where it surrendered to local
authorities.
The unexpectedly brilliant performance of the ANC in
Bukavu gave
the regime a renewed sense of pride and self-confidence.
The time
was ripe for consolidating its institutional legitimacy.
Already in January 1966, a major step toward political
consolidation had taken place with the creation of the
Corps of
Volunteers of the Republic (Corps des Volontaires de la
République-
-CVR), a loosely knit organization whose membership was
mainly
recruited from the students associated with the General
Union of
Congolese Students (Union Générale des Étudiants
Congolais--UGEC).
Many of the ideas set forth by the CVR came to reflect a
brand of
student radicalism in which the themes of nationalism,
economic
independence, and socialization received pride of place.
Rather
than a party, the CVR is better seen as a vanguard
movement
designed to mobilize popular energies behind Mobutu, "our
Second
National Hero" (after Lumumba). The very mixed record of
the CVR as
an agent of political mobilization, reflecting in part its
excessive reliance on student activists, must have been an
important consideration in prompting Mobutu to launch a
more
broadly based movement--a movement which, in Mobutu's
words, "will
be animated by the Chief of State himself, and of which
the CVR is
not at all the embryo."
Data as of December 1993
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