The government is confident the elections this weekend in the strife-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will put it back on the high road towards national reconciliation and development, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday.
In his weekly newsletter on the ANC Today website, published two days ahead of the DRC’s first democratic elections in more than 46 years, he said the polls are ”of historic importance to the future of Africa”.
”At this critical time, the people of South Africa wish the sister people of the DRC success as they vote on July 30.
”We … urge all Congolese to work together to ensure that the elections take place in conditions of peace and calm throughout the country, to allow the Congolese people to exercise their inalienable right to select a government of their choice,” he said.
Mbeki’s appeal is set against a background of mounting violence in the run-up to elections in Africa’s third-largest country.
On Thursday, four people, including three police officers, were killed at a rally in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, when security forces clashed with stone-throwing supporters of one of the country’s four vice-presidents, Jean-Pierre Bemba.
Bemba is a leading rival in Sunday’s historic poll to current DRC head of state Joseph Kabila.
In his letter, Mbeki said ”turning the [DRC] around” is vital for Africa. Citing a United Nations study, he said its vast mineral wealth includes one-third of the world’s cobalt reserves and 10% of its copper, as well as diamonds, gold, oil, silver, uranium and zinc.
”Its river system could power the entire continent, and the country contains 50% of Africa’s natural forests. And yet the DRC is one of the poorest countries, ranked 167 out of 177 in the 2005 United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index,” he said.
From 1998 to 2003, the DRC was wracked by the so-called Second Congo War, the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II, and the biggest war between countries in Africa’s history.
It directly involved nine African nations and about 20 armed groups, resulted in the deaths of an estimated 3,8-million people and displaced millions more.
Mbeki said he is certain the existing leadership ”will not disappoint the masses they lead”.
South Africa has worked very closely with the election structures of the DRC to prepare for Sunday’s elections. ”We are confident that the … elections will convey the firm message to the masses of the Congolese people that, once again, they are back on the high road towards the healing of their wounds,” he said.
The DRC’s first democratic elections led to the installation of Patrice Lumumba as prime minister in June 1960. Six months later he was murdered. — Sapa