Bertin Mwamba | |
---|---|
Minister for the Post Office, Telegraphs and Telecommunications | |
In office November 1965 –18 December 1966 | |
President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Democratic Republic of the Congo | |
In office November 1962 –March 1963 | |
Preceded by | Yvon Kimpiobi |
Succeeded by | Joseph Midiburo |
Personal details | |
Born | Songa,Belgian Congo | 25 September 1932
Political party | Confédération des associations tribales du Katanga |
Bertin Mwamba or Mwamba Maleba Banze Kabombo (born 25 September 1932) is a Congolese politician who served as the third President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Bertin Mwamba was born on 25 September 1932 in Songa,Belgian Congo [1] into a Luba family. [2] He received three years of secondary education at the Ecole des Moniteurs. He worked as a teacher from 1953 until 1957,when he became a chartered accountant,holding the latter job until 1960.
Mwamba participated in the economic portion of the Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference in Brussels from April to May 1960. [1] He was a member of the Confédération des associations tribales du Katanga (CONAKAT) party and led its chapter in Kamina. In anticipation of the May 1960 general elections in the Congo,Mwamba directed the party's campaigning efforts in the town.
Without many resources to organise the local campaign,he appealed to the local electorate by saying that CONAKAT would serve as a bulwark against domination from the neighbouring Kasai region. [3]
Mwamba was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in the election, [1] representing the Haut-Lomami constituency in Katanga Province. [2] Though a member of CONAKAT,he had political differences with party leader Moïse Tshombe. [4] Thus even though Katanga had seceded under Tshombe's direction,Mwamba returned to his seat in Parliament in August 1961. [2]
In March 1962,he ran as the parliamentary opposition's candidate to be President of the Chamber. He lost the Chamber vote,51 to 59. [5]
In November,he successfully secured the office and held it until March 1963. [6] In April,following the termination of the Katangese secession,Prime Minister Cyrille Adoula reshuffled his government and appointed Mwamba Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. [7] He was re-elected to the Chamber in 1965. [1]
That November,Joseph-DésiréMobutu took power in a coup. Mwamba was appointed Minister for the Post Office,Telegraphs and Telecommunications,and he held the post until a cabinet reshuffle on 18 December 1966. On 18 January,1967,he was arrested on charges of embezzling $570,000 of government profits from stamp resells while in office. [8]
Mwamba later involved himself in commerce and agriculture. In 1982,he was elected Haut-Lomami Commissar for the Legislative Council with 19,814 votes. He was a member of the Political,Administrative and Judiciary Committee of the Subcommittee on Justice and worked on the parliamentary group for environmental issues. [1]
Évariste Leon Kimba Mutombo was a Congolese journalist and politician who served as Foreign Minister of the State of Katanga from 1960 to 1963 and Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 13 October to 25 November 1965. Kimba was born in 1926 in Katanga Province, Belgian Congo. Following the completion of his studies he worked as a journalist and became editor-in-chief of the Essor du Congo. In 1958 he and a group of Katangese concerned about domination of their province by people from the neighbouring Kasaï region founded the Confédération des associations tribales du Katanga (CONAKAT), a regionalist political party. In 1960 the Congo became independent and shortly thereafter Moise Tshombe declared the secession of the State of Katanga. Kimba played an active role in the separatist state's government as its Minister of Foreign Affairs and participated in numerous talks with the central government aimed at political reconciliation. Following the collapse of the secession in early 1963, Kimba had a falling out with Tshombe and took up several ministerial posts in the new province of South Katanga.
The State of Katanga, also sometimes denoted as the Republic of Katanga, was a breakaway state that proclaimed its independence from Congo-Léopoldville on 11 July 1960 under Moise Tshombe, leader of the local Confédération des associations tribales du Katanga (CONAKAT) political party. The new Katangese state did not enjoy full support throughout the province and was constantly plagued by ethnic strife in its northernmost region. It was dissolved in 1963 following an invasion by United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC) forces, and reintegrated with the rest of the country as Katanga Province.
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Jean Bolikango, later Bolikango Akpolokaka Gbukulu Nzete Nzube, was a Congolese educator, writer, and conservative politician. He served twice as Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, in September 1960 and from February to August 1962. Enjoying substantial popularity among the Bangala people, he headed the Parti de l'Unité Nationale and worked as a key opposition member in Parliament in the early 1960s.
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