Kinshasa, May 25th, 2025 (CPA) – President Tshisekedi has instructed the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the Homeland to examine the cases of destabilization of provincial institutions underway, and to take preventive and corrective measures, before the Governors’ conference scheduled for Kolwezi, in Lualaba (south-west of the Democratic Republic of Congo), an official source has informed. ‘In view of this worrying situation, the President of the Republic has instructed the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, under the coordination of the Prime Minister, to examine as a matter of priority the cases of destabilisation of provincial institutions that are underway or planned. It is also his responsibility to formulate as soon as possible proposals for preventive and corrective measures that could be discussed and, if appropriate, adopted on the sidelines of the 12th governors‘ conference already scheduled’, reported Patrick Muyaya, government spokesman, in his reading of the Minutes of the 44ᵉ Council of Ministers. In addition, the Head of State deplored this upsurge in the destabilization of certain provincial executives by the provincial assemblies, believing it to be a factor in weakening national unity and cohesion.
‘Where institutional stability was supposed to serve as a foundation for national cohesion, it has been compromised, to the detriment of our fellow citizens (…). At a time when our country is going through a major security crisis in its eastern part, a crisis that requires the united mobilization of all the nation’s vital forces, we are paradoxically witnessing a resurgence of acts of destabilization in certain provincial executives’, he said. Earlier, the Head of State had recalled the twofold objective of dismembering the provinces, namely to consolidate national unity, which has been damaged by successive conflicts, and to promote local development, the constituent having structured the State into 26 provinces.
At the 11th Governors’ Conference, held in November 2024 in Kalemie, Tanganyika province, the Head of State had already mentioned the recurring tensions between governors and provincial assemblies as one of the challenges hampering the development of the provinces. ‘The lack of institutional cohesion between the governors and the provincial assemblies limits the effectiveness of our action on the ground. The recurring tensions between these institutions, combined with the weakening of traditional power, are undermining the unity and stability of our provinces’, he said. Following a recent crisis between the executive and legislative bodies of the province of Kasai Oriental, Governor Jean-Paul Mbwebwa was indicted by the provincial deputies at the end of a plenary session on 10 May for ‘embezzlement of investment funds of 3 million US dollars and bad governance’. On Monday, May 19th, , in a message from the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the Homeland, he was instructed to hand over the management of the aforementioned entity to his deputy, who is responsible for acting in the interim and handling day-to-day business.
Jacquemain Shabani, deputy prime minister in charge of the Interior and Security, wrote to the deputy prime minister: ‘I salute you and urge you, with all due dispatch, to proceed with the handover and resumption with the deputy provincial governor, who must assume the interim role in order to expedite day-to-day business, under the supervision of the IGTER provincial inspector’. According to the telegram, signed by Mr. Shabani, the interim appointment is to be made ‘with the assistance of the members of the provincial security committee’.
In July 2023, the provincial deputies of Kasai Oriental had already voted on a resolution to impeach a governor of this entity and two of his ministers. ‘Governor Patrick Matthias Kabeya Matshi Abidi is indicted for contempt of the provincial assembly of Kasai Oriental and misappropriation of public funds’, said the rapporteur of the provincial assembly bureau at the time, Kizito Mukendi.ACP/