A delegation of Katangese is heading to the United Nations to announce plans to secede following attempts by Kinshasa to enact a discriminatory law ahead of the December 20, 2023 elections.
Another delegations will present a petition to the National Assembly in Kinshasa to declare independence to allow the south-east region revert to its status of 1960 to 1963 when the Belgian-colony became independent.
The Katangese delegation are hinging their self-rule on the constitution first promulgated by the leadership of Moise Tshombe.
A spokesperson for the group has disclosed that Katangese have resolved to become independent to allow citizens govern themselves in a non-discriminatory system.
He argues that the admission of the Tshiani Law, which seeks to eliminate candidates without two Congolese parents from contesting the election, was racist, undemocratic and discriminatory.
They state that such a law goes against the ideals and values on which Katanga and the Democratic Republic of Congo became one state.
The bill brought by American citizen, Noel Tshiani, will eliminate popular opposition leader Moise Katumbi whose father, Nissim Soriano, is a Greek-Jew who settled in the southern part of the former Belgian colony after fleeing the Holocaust.
The late Mr. Soriano established his family with a Congolese woman, mama Virgine, and their family emerged as a business powerhouse in the region.
In 2018, Katumbi was blocked from returning to Congo to contest the polls but backed Martin Fayulu who was widely seen to have won the election based on the Parallel Voter Tabulation (PVT).
President Felix Tshisekedi was, however, named winner in a negotiated power deal that would keep former president Joseph Kabila as life president of the senate and free from any form of prosecution.
THE CONSTITUTION OF KATANGA
