Football lovers and TP Mazembe supporters in Lubumbushi are on Tuesday set to stage a peaceful protest against government’s decision to render the legendary football club stranded in its own country.
Mazembe have been forced to relocate Saturday’s first leg quarter-final encounter of the inaugural African Football League competition against Tunisian side Esperance Sportive des Tunis to Tanzania after government blocked the club from holding the match in Lubumbushi.
With just a few days to go before the match, the Congolese government is yet to grant visa access to officials from the continental football body, CAF while broadcast equipment to be used in the coverage of the match has also been left stranded.
The football supporters have since decided to hold a solidarity march on Tuesday in Lubumbushi to call on the government to rethink their cruel decision to deny them the pleasure of watching the nation’s most successful club defend the honour of the DRC in the African Football League for political reasons.
Mazembe supporters are due to assemble at the Stade de TP Mazembe in Kamalondo where they will start the march into the central business district of the city.
The decision by government to block Mazembe from hosting its home matches in the continental competition is the latest political scheme to frustrate Presidential candidate Moïse Katumbi who owns the club.
Katumbi and his Ensemble Pour la Republique party allies have been faced with several atrocities committed against them by incumbent Fèlix Tshisekedi’s government including assassination and unlawful detentions as the 20 December Presidential Elections draw closer.
