Kabila sacks nine ministers
2005-01-04 15:29
Kinshasa - President Joseph Kabila of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has sacked nine ministers in a post-war transitional government, several accused of corruption, by a decree made public late on Monday in the northeastern city of Kisangani.
They include the ministers of transport and communications, Joseph Olenghankoy, of mines, Eugene Diomi Ndongala, of energy, Jean-Pierre Kalema, of higher education, Joseph Mudumbi, of foreign trade, Roger Lumbala, and of public works, Jose Endundo Bononge.
These six men were suspended in November for alleged corruption in the vast central African country, which has since 2003 been headed by a transition team including members of rebel movements which went to war in 1998 and leaders of the political opposition.
The others dismissed by Kabila, who has been since Sunday in Kisangani where an eastern military command has been established, include defence minister Jean-Pierre Ondekane and economy minister Emile Ngoy Kasongo, who came from the former rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), and public health minister Anasthasie Moleko Moliwa.
All the movements with members in the government have named replacements for the dismissed ministers, apart from the Congo Liberation Movement (MLC), which took control of much of northern DRC during the war. It has yet to put up a candidate for the public works portfolio.
New government includes six women
In a partial reshuffle, Kabila's new appointments include Defence Minister Adolphe Onusumba Yemba, Energy Minister Pierre Muzumba Mwana Ombe, Economy Minister Floribert Bokanga, Health Minister Emile Bongeli Yekolo, Social Affairs Minister Laurent-Charles Otete Omanga, Transport and Communications Minister Eva Makasa, Foreign Trade Minister Chantal Ngalula Mulumba and Labour and Social Welfare Minister Balamage Nkolo.
Like the previous team, the new government includes six women among 36 ministers and 25 deputy ministers.
During the war, which saw armed intervention in the mineral-rich but deeply impoverished country by more than half a dozen foreign African armies, DRC's eastern neighbours Rwanda and Uganda respectively backed the RCD and the MLC.
Since a series of peace pacts leading to the transitional government, due to hold elections this year, and the withdrawal of foreign troops, the RCD has controlled parts of the still volatile east of the country but seen increasing policy divisions and splits within its own ranks.