Mounting pressure has forced President Felix Tshisekedi to start disowning his pawn, Noel Tshani, who he has sponsored to propose a constitutional amendment that eliminates other candidates from seeking office in the December 20, 2023 presidential and general election.
In recent weeks, day-to-day life has been characterized by protests from across the Democratic Republic of Congo with people demanding that the proposal seeking to bar anyone without two parents originally from Congo from seeking presidential office.
The bill is targeted at opposition leader Moise Katumbi. It was defeated in 2021 but has been re-submitted to the National Assembly for discussion this year. Katumbi, the former Katanga governor, is son of a Greek-Jew, Nissim Soriano, who fled the Holocaust and settled in the former Belgian colony.
Minister of Media and Communication and government spokesman Patrick Muyaya Katembwe said on Monday, April 10, 2023 that the draft law on Congolese nationality is not an initiative of Presiden Tshisekedi’s government.
The Catholic Church, United Nations envoy to Congo and European ambassadors accredited to the DRC have sided with the population warning that the bill had the potential to plunge the country into chaos.
“The draft law on congolity is an expression of democracy which does not commit the government. Who tells you that the National Assembly will adopt this law?” asks Muyaya.
Muyaya said all Congolese had the right in a democratic state to express a point of view on an issue, or propose an initiative, without falling into segregationist discourse.
“We must accept that opinions are expressed even if we don’t agree with the law,” he said.
In the process, Muyaya condemned remarks which he described as s “segregationists” by former Minister of Planning, Christian Mwando, in Kalemie during a rally organized by the opposition Together for the Republic.
Mwando warned that if Katumbi was not on the ballot in December, Congolese youths had resolved to secede.
Congolese national deputy Singi Pululu submitted the Tshiani bill which was admitted on the calendar for the current March session for review.
