Fearing the strong challenge opposition Moise Katumbi of Ensemble is posing to incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi, the ruling party’s surrogates mostly from the kasai region have launched a tribal tirade against their competitor.
The hate filled campaign by kasais who dominate the ruling party, UDPS, is also attracting vicious reaction from those who don’t support their stance.
Didier Budimbu, the Minister of Hydrocarbons, who was convicted of criminal behavior in Belgium recently took the podium saying Katumbi was not 100 percent Congolese and should therefore not be allowed to be president.
In his racist speech, Budimbu says people with light skin, in direct reference to Mr. Katumbi, are foreigners in Congo and should not be allowed to contest the office of President.
The rhetoric by Budimbu is part of the remnants of a failed bid by President Tshisekedi and his supporters to legally block Mr. Katumbi using parliament.
However, the speech has not gone done well with some sections of the Congolese society with Budimbu’s office subjected to an attack.
The headquarters of Budimbu’s political party Autre Vision du Congo (AVC) was ransacked on Sunday in Lubumbashi.
Unidentified people descended on Budimbu’s office and destroyed the offices with property and other items also destroyed in the process.
According to several sources, the destruction of Budimbu’s office is as a result of his hateful comments. Budimbu is a self-confessed pro-Tshisekedi politician who recently visited Lubumbashi and called some Katangaise politicians “strangers”.
The topic dubbed Congolite has been deemed racist, tribal and segregational with the United Nations classifying it as hate speech which should be investigated and uprooted as it was an affront top hold a free, fair and inclusive election.
Meanwhile, Budimbu’s party has announced it will commence legal proceedings against those who attacked its office.
“It is clear that the authors of this act fear the political anchoring of its moral authority in the province of Haut-Katanga. The moral authority of the stroke, Didier Budimbu, who strongly condemns these actions, has promised to give them a judicial follow-up by means of an investigation,” a statement by AVC Communications team reads.
The DRC will go to the polls on December 20, 2023.
