The successful presidential and legislative elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) show Africa is firmly on its way towards its rebirth, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday.
”In due course the historic importance of these developments in the DRC will become clear to all of us as Africans,” Mbeki said in his weekly newsletter on the ANC website.
”We will come to appreciate the enormous effort and the extraordinary will to succeed that made it possible for the leaders and the people of the DRC to take their country to where it is today, when it has recaptured from the clutches of a disastrous past the right of the great Congolese masses to determine their destiny in conditions of democracy, national unity, peace and stability.”
Mbeki again congratulated President-elect Joseph Kabila on his election, as well as losing presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba for his acceptance of the outcome.
”We must also salute the United Nations, which has played and continues to play a critical role in the various processes that have enabled the Congolese people to make history, standing tall today as a messenger of hope, communicating the message that Africa is firmly on its way towards its rebirth,” he said.
The DRC people’s achievement sends a message of a bright future for all their neighbours, and the imperative to seize the moment, to build a new neighbourhood of friendship and shared prosperity for the peoples of the DRC on the one hand, and those of the Congo and Angola, Zambia and Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan and the Central African Republic, on the other.
”Our warmest congratulations go to the Congolese masses. Despite the painful disappointments of many decades, these great masses did not lose confidence in the capacity of their nation to pull itself out of the abyss.”
The Congolese people have created a chance for their country, and have enhanced the capacity of the continent to help build a planetary civilisation, instead of allowing humanity to sink into the shameless barbarism that every month claims the lives of thousands of innocent people in the streets of Baghdad and other Iraqi localities.
”Because they dared to rebel against the tyrants and the dictators, those who seek to corrupt our societies and steal the wealth that belongs to the people, the great masses of the DRC have served as a powerful propellant that will accelerate Africa’s advance towards her renaissance,” Mbeki said.
In the October 29 presidential second-round elections, Kabila won 58,05% of the votes, and Bemba 41,95%.
Kabila is expected to be sworn in as President on December 6, after which he will appoint a prime minister from among the elected MPs. — Sapa