When death brings ‘the African disease’ to life
By Charles Ochen Okwir
5th March 2012: President Joseph Kabila’s most powerful adviser Augustin Katumba Mwanke was finally buried on Wednesday, 15 February. Katumba, a 48 year old former governor of the mineral-rich Katanga province, died on Sunday, 12 February when the luxury Gulfstream IV jet he was travelling in crashed after it over-shot a runway in Bukavu – eastern Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC].
The death of a powerful political figure, wherever that may be, often opens a whole new chapter in national politics. The DRC is thus no exception. A cursory reflection on Katumba’s life, and the possible implications of his death, may therefore be appropriate for those interested in both DRC’s and African politics in general.
Katumba’s untimely death, tragic as it might be, ought to be an eye opener for Africa’s despots. Quite often, many of them assign great significance on the value of political patronage for their survival. As a result, they reward their most loyal confidants with jaw-dropping power, power which, ironically, could threaten the presidency and the stability of the state itself.
Augustin Katumba was one such man in whom so much power was vested, both formally and informally. But first, we need to put Katumba’s power into proper context. The US Geological Survey estimates that up to 4% of the world’s copper reserves are in the DRC. Half the world’s cobalt, a raw material for making rechargeable batteries, is also said to come from the DRC.
The DRC is also Africa’s leading producer of tin. It has large deposits of gold and diamonds, and oil exploration is underway. Rough estimates put the DRC’s mineral wealth at approximately $24 trillion. Augustin Katumba was at the centre of this vast mineral wealth. Leaders of large multi-national companies admit that he was quite simply indispensible.
According to Georges Kyriakos of MagEnergy International, a Mauritius-based company with interests in DRC’s hydropower industry, “…most big businesses needed to work through Katumba and he was also a guarantor of their deals…without him there will be a great deal of uncertainty about who will ensure that agreements remain intact.”
Katumba was also instrumental in negotiating a $6 billion minerals-for-infrastructure contract with China. Most foreign diplomats and businessmen regarded Agustin Katumba Mwanke as “the power behind the throne”, at least according to secret diplomatic cables published by the whistleblower website Wikileaks.
Not surprisingly, some African affairs analysts have already predicted that Katumba Mwanke’s death may cause a power struggle in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “His removal from the political scene will encourage a power struggle among politicians keen to fill the void”, a senior consultant at africapractice is quoted to have said.
African power struggles have always been messy, and sometimes bloody. President Joseph Kabila will therefore be among the few exceptions if he somehow manages to steer his beleaguered presidency clear of the political time bomb he created and nurtured by lumping too much power in hands of a mere mortal. If he doesn’t, his vast and volatile country could sink deeper into the abyss.
Africa’s timeless political disease
And President Joseph Kabila is not, and unlikely to be the last man to have been infected by what I, and many others, have called ‘Africa’s timeless political disease’. During President Daniel Arap Moi’s 24 year reign in Kenya, a certain Nicholas Biwot was just as powerful as Katumba Mwanke. With Moi’s implied consent, limitless influence, power, and wealth were at his beck-and-call.
In Uganda today, the situation is virtually identical, if not worse! President Yoweri Museveni’s loyal Prime Minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi is a man suffocating with power and influence. At one point, Mbabazi concurrently held the powerful portfolios of Defence Minister, Attorney General, and Secretary General of the ruling party. And for that, the media “baptised” him ‘Super Minister’.
Museveni’s young brother General Caleb Akandwanaho a.k.a Salim Saleh is probably as powerful as Nicholas Biwot and Katumba Mwanke put together. Even as a retired General with no significant role in government, Saleh still commands enormous informal power. He is also, quite easily, one of the wealthiest men in Uganda.
In Rwanda, James Musoni was, and is probably still considered to be the second most powerful man after President Paul Kagame. His power, unsurprisingly, is associated with his socio-political proximity to President Kagame. In fact, unverified information obtained from a Rwandese national exiled in the UK suggests that James Musoni may know more about Kagame’s personal wealth than Kagame’s own wife.
We could go on until the cows come home. It is therefore safe to say that in the eyes of any disinterested and or objective analysts, there can be no doubt that the continued existence of powerful, privileged, and often unaccountable front-men like Katumba Mwanke seriously undermines Africa’s desire to build effective democratic institutions.
It also makes the frequently hyped fight against corruption sound eerily hollow – fatally compromised by impunity. In Uganda for example, it has been demonstrated time and again that whenever a top establishment figure falls foul of the law, it takes great political bravery from the President to reign in the suspect.
After all, by sheer political necessity, such powerful front-men will have also been privy to some ugly and potentially incriminating secrets. If the President then tries to push them against the wall as he should in the public interest, they could easily expose the ghostly skeletons tucked away in the darkest corner of the presidential closet. And that could, as observed earlier, threaten the presidency itself.
Further south, President Jacob Zuma’s ruling African National Congress [ANC] fought tooth and nail with, until it finally managed to marshal the courage last week to expel its former Youth League leader Julius Malema – a rich and powerful political dinosaur unwittingly created by the ANC itself.
The difference, as Malema’s case shows, is that unlike most African countries, South Africa has fairly strong state and party institutions that can nip impunity in the bud. And therein lies the lesson for Africa. END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
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