ASSESSMENTS

In the Congo, Waiting for an Anti-Graft Drive That Never Comes

Sep 16, 2019 | 10:00 GMT

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi prepares to receive German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in the presidential palace in Kinshasa on Sept. 5, 2019.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi prepares to receive German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in the presidential palace in Kinshasa on Sept. 5, 2019. Tshisekedi is facing an uphill battle to tackle his country's widespread corruption.

(KAY NIETFELD/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Highlights

  • The makeup of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's new government underscores the Kabila system's continued stranglehold over the country's political order. 
  • The old guard of former President Joseph Kabila is likely to resist efforts by the new government to clamp down — for either current or previous misdeeds — on corruption, thereby limiting efforts to root out graft.
  • Failure to reform the system will deter foreign investors and could sour the United States on the new president.

Eight months after Felix Tshisekedi was sworn in as the Democratic Republic of the Congo's new president, the country finally has a government -- but it's old in all but name. Two-thirds of the Cabinet positions (or 42 of 65 posts) in Tshisekedi's government went to members of the coalition of former President Joseph Kabila, who continues to pull the levers of power in the giant country, while just 23 posts went to the new president's Direction for Change. In last year's presidential election, Tshisekedi ran on a platform of getting tough on the country's endemic graft -- much of it committed by the members of Kabila's circle -- but in his time as the Democratic Republic of the Congo's leader so far, he has hardly proven to be financially thrifty himself. Given his own entourage's profligacy, as well as his powerlessness in the face of the ever-present Kabila circle,...

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