The four vice presidents for the two-year transitional government in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) took their oath of office on Thursday in the capital, Kinshasa.
Kabila ally and former foreign minister Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi, leader of the Mouvement de liberation du Congo Jean-Pierre Bemba, leader of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie movement Azarias Ruberwa, and unarmed political opposition representative Arthur Z’ahidi Ngoma vowed to “scrupulously respect the spirit and letter of the global and inclusive [peace] accord and of the Constitution”.
Each man, holding the national flag in his left hand and the text of the oath in his right, pledged “to commit all their force to contribute to the safeguard of the transitional institutions of the Republic and to preserve the unity and indivisibility of the nation”.
Attorney-General Tshimanga Mukeba declared the four “healthy in body and mind” and said they had “clean legal records”.
Then, President Joseph Kabila shook hands with each man.
The 36 ministers and 24 deputy ministers drawn from Kabila’s previous government, the various armed opposition movements, the political opposition, the Mayi-Mayi militias and civil society are to take their oaths of office on Friday before a first meeting of the new government is held on Saturday.
Ruberwa, who arrived in Kinshasa on Wednesday, said he and Kabila had “harmonised” their positions with regard to leadership of a unified national army and security to be provided for members of the transitional government.
“The process has begun, there is no turning back, there is no doubt,” Ruberwa told a news conference following his meeting with Kabila on Wednesday. “We are together now as partners and not as belligerents.” – Irin