Congolese President Kabila meets with Katangan dignitaries

By

Sylvain Muyali

President Joseph Kabila visited the Congolese city of Lubumbashi earlier this week where he held talks with politicians and dignitaries from the Katangan province. It had been stated that these talks could play an important role in the territorial division for the 2016 presidential election.

The Congolese president stated that Katanga is a province to match all others and it is now time to restore order in this respect. It is the richest region but the population still live in poverty, he emphasised. To those who want to oppose cuts in order to protect their mining interests, President Kabila called them to respect the Constitution law.

Addressing his Katangan brothers, Joseph Kabila launched tips, warnings, and darts that extended to the entire Congolese nation. Here are some translated from his speech:

“I cannot replicate every time all that has been said…The talk is when you have words that speak louder than silence.”

Katanga is a province like any other province of the DRC and can’t have a special status with regard to territorial division. What did you do to prevent this constitutional division? he was asked. “The province of Katanga now feels the strength of the authority of the state” he responded.

Dozens of trucks outweigh minerals on the road to Kasumbalesa but poverty ravaging the population on the region and the provincial assembly should help us to resolve these issues.

People are talking about 2016, but I say there will be no bloodshed and there will be nothing … And if Jesus returned in June 2015? It will take from us the good and leave us the bad (in a joke relating to the controversy surrounding next year’s election).

Sylvain Muyali

Sylvain Muyali is a Journalist, Photographer and Filmmaker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has reported previously for the Associated Press and his words and images can also be found at ‘Vivons Positivement‘