Nzanga Mobutu

Nzanga Mobutu

Mobutu Nzanga, 5 August 2010
Minister of State for Agriculture
In office
5 February 2007 – 10 October 2008
Deputy Prime Minister for Basic Social Needs
In office
26 October 2008 – 10 March 2011
Personal details
Born 1970 (age 45–46)

François-Joseph Mobutu Nzanga Ngbangawe (born 24 March 1970) is a Congolese politician. A son of the long-time President Mobutu Sese Seko, he served in the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo under President Joseph Kabila from 2007 to 2011, initially as Minister of State for Agriculture and subsequently as Deputy Prime Minister for Basic Social Needs. He was dismissed from the government in March 2011 after a long crisis between himself and President Kabila.

Background

Nzanga Mobutu is the eldest son of Mobutu Sese Seko by his second wife, Bobi Ladawa. Nzanga studied in Belgium, France and Canada before returning to Congo in the mid-1990s. He then worked as an adviser to his father, but fled into exile when rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila captured Kinshasa in May 1997.

Return to democracy

He is the leader of the Union of Mobutuist Democrats (UDEMO), a political party advocating the restoration of peace, national unity and territorial integrity. He is most popular in the northwestern province of Équateur, whence his father hailed. In the 2006 presidential election, he ran as a candidate and placed fourth, with about 4.8% of the vote.[1] Following the first round of voting, Mobutu entered into a platform political coalition with incumbent president Joseph Kabila to try to rally votes from the Equateur region where Jean-Pierre Bemba was favored to win. The coalition also involved the political party PALU of Antoine Gizenga. His younger brother, Albert Philipe Giala Kassa Mobutu (b. 1971), and eight other UDEMO candidates were elected to the National Assembly in the 2006 election.

Government minister

Gizenga became Prime Minister in December 2006, and Mobutu was named Minister of State for Agriculture when Gizenga's government was announced on February 5, 2007,[2] ranking second in the government after Gizenga.[3] When Gizenga was succeeded by Adolphe Muzito, Mobutu was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister for Basic Social Needs in Muzito's government, which was named on October 26, 2008.[4] On 10 March 2011 he was dismissed from this position after a crisis that lasted for months between him and president Kabila. He ran for office at the 2011 presidential elections against the incumbent president.

He is married to Catherine Bemba, a daughter of businessman Bemba Saolona and sister of Jean-Pierre Bemba, with whom he has three children: Njiwa, Bobi, and Sese.

References

  1. ↑ Elections in Congo-Kinshasa, African Elections Database.
  2. ↑ "La composition du nouveau gouvernement de la RDC connue", African Press Agency, February 5, 2007 (French).
  3. ↑ "Relief at new DR Congo government", BBC News, February 6, 2007.
  4. ↑ "Publication de la liste des membres du nouveau gouvernement congolais", Panapress, October 27, 2008 (French).
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