WEDNESDAY, 5.30PM
DEPUTY President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday reported that negotiations to establish a transitional government in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are proving to be more complex than anticipated.
Mbeki told the National Assembly that he is nonetheless confident that there will be an announcement on the authority in the next few days. It had been expected that the authority, which will govern the country in the run-up to elections, would have been announced on Tuesday.
The only official comment forthcoming on the issue was a brief statement by Kabila’s Foreign Minister Bizima Karaha: “We are starting the second phase of our revolution, the reconstruction phase, so you could understand that the reconstruction phase cannot go as quickly as the military phase.”
WEDNESDAY, 2.30PM
PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela, on his first state visit to Zimbabwe, on Wednesday lambasted Western governments for “lecturing” new Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) leader Laurent Kabila on democracy after themselves supporting African dictators for decades.
Addressing a meeting of Zimbabwean business leaders, Mandela said: “What is most strange is that some Western countries that have supported the most vicious dictators for decades are now, just after Kabila has taken the country for one day, taking it upon themselves to lecture him upon democracy.” Although he did not name any country, Mandela’s reference followed calls by the United States for early elections in the former Zaire after decades of US support for Mobutu’s regime.
Mandela added that Kabila had promised him that he will establish a constituent assembly within 60 days to prepare for the first democratic elections after 30 years of Mobutu’s plundering dictatorship. Mandela described Kabila as a “an outstanding figure who is committed to peace”, and proved his good intentions by declaring a unilateral ceasefire despite almost unrelenting military success in his eight-month campaign for power. “He didn’t want to enter Kinshasa, the capital, walking through streams of blood and tears,” Mandela said.