Little respect in Katanga for legacy of Kabila’s brother

Public tributes last month at the funeral of Georges Katwal, director of the Katanga branch of the internal security service, l’Agence nationale de renseignements (ANR), and younger brother of President Laurent-Desire Kabila, masked a lamentable state of affairs in the province, the Kinshasa-based weekly ‘La Tribune’ reported at the weekend. Thousands of Congolese, including Kabila, paid tribute to Katwal in Lubumbashi on 27 February but many did so in honour of the president, who remained popular, and not his brother, for whom there was little respect, the paper said.

“It is an established fact that the ANR-Katanga had become a real instrument of terror, reprisal and extortion,” it said. “Arbitrariness was the order of the day.” “At Lubumbashi town hall, there is a complete catastrophe. Insults, incivility and mismanagement have finally tarnished the image of this city,” ‘La Tribune’ stated, adding that prices were skyrocketing and “mafia-types” were reasserting themselves to secure “unjustified accumulation of wealth”. “The couldn’t care less attitude” of the provincial administration was one reason “why the people are fervently calling for democracy,” the report concluded.