FRIDAY, 5.00PM:
OUSTED Zairean dictator Mobutu sese Seko is welcome to return home, Democratic Republic of Congo Foreign Minister Bizima Karaha, on a visit to SA, said on Friday.
Mobutu is receiving treatment for prostate cancer in Morocco, where he fled days after being deposed. The Moroccans are uncomfortable with his presence and have insisted his stay is temporary. The Moraccan government this week expelled 50 members of Mobutu’s entourage from the country. The ailing former dictator owns mansions in several countries, but none will allow him in.
Karaha on Friday said the Democratic Republic of Congo had officially invited Mobutu “and all his people … to return and invest what he has been taking away for more than 30 years”.
“This time he should do the reverse movement, importing the money that he has been exporting,” Karaha added.
The invitation also applies to others who fled the former Zaire when the rebel forces of Laurent Kabila toppled Mobutu in May. Kabila proclaimed himself president and renamed the country the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Meanwhile, it was announced on Friday by Foreign Affairs Minister Alfred Nzo that DRC President Laurent Kabila will make an official visit to SA in the next few weeks.