Jonas Mukamba Kadiata Nzemba (born January 4,1931) is a politician from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and former CEO of the state-run diamond company. Between August 1965 and October 1968 he was governor in turn of South Kasai,Kasaï-Oriental,Équateur and Orientale Province. He was again governor of Équateur Province between 27 August 1980 and 19 March 1983. [1]
Zaire's president Mobutu Sese Seko appointed Nzemba the chief executive officer of the state's main diamond mining company,the Societéminière de Bakwanga (MIBA) in 1986. Based in the city of Mbuji-Mayi,formerly Bakwanga,the company provided as much as 80 percent of the world's industrial diamonds,but other than mining operations which provided much-needed hard currency,the region was widely neglected by Mobutu and the central government. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s,Zaire and Mobutu paid little attention to Mbuji-Mayi,offering almost no money to build roads,schools or hospitals.
In the political vacuum,MIBA,stepped in. In the place of the federal government,MIBA invested heavily in the region - repairing roads,paying soldiers and supplying water and electricity to the city from its own power station. The company set up a social fund of $5 to $6 million a year,or roughly 8 percent of its annual budget. This money not only went for infrastructure repair,but also to fund a new university. [2]
These investments and position as largest employer made Nzemba one of the most powerful men in the region,and de facto governor of Mbuji-Mayi. Nzemba was considered one of the more powerful players in Mobutu's political party,the Mouvement Populaire pour le Revolution (MPR),but also called himself a "brother" of Étienne Tshisekedi,a popular local political figure and Mobutu's most significant political opposition. [3]
During his time as head of MIBA,Nzemba is credited with creating the Conference pour le Developpement Economique de Kasai Oriental (CDEKO),a regional economic development group in the early 1990s. [4] Nzemba also backed the creation of the University of Kasai,which was jointly sponsored by MIBA and the local Catholic church,and which became the home base of CDEKO. The new organization spearheaded economic growth in Mbuji-Mayi,helping support the development of new agricultural and beer industry expansion around the city,and launched Wetrafa,a locally owned airline. [3]
But,Mobutu's willingness to let Nzemba control the province through MIBA came at a price - Nzemba may have skimmed as much as $1.5 to $2 million a month to send to Mobutu's personal bank accounts. [5]
As the First Congo War broke out,Nzemba initially sided with Mobutu against the rebels led by Laurent-DésiréKabila,but as Kabila's Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL or ADFLC) approached the city,Nzemba quickly switched sides. Nzemba declared that he was ready to work with AFDL a week before the fall of Mbuji-Mayi. [6]
When the city fell to the rebels on April 4,1997,Nzemba was summoned to Goma to speak with Kabila,who held him for several days,prompting his family to purchase advertising in newspapers publicizing their concerns for his safety. [7] Nzemba was released shortly after,but MIBA began making "voluntary contributions" to Kabila's war effort - totaling an estimated $5.5 million in 1997 and 1998. [8]
He ran for president in the 2006 presidential election.
The earliest known human settlements in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been dated back to the Middle Stone Age,approximately 90,000 years ago. The first real states,such as the Kongo,the Lunda,the Luba and Kuba,appeared south of the equatorial forest on the savannah from the 14th century onwards.
Zaire,officially the Republic of Zaire,was the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 1997. Zaire was located in Central Africa and was,by area,the third-largest country in Africa,and the 11th-largest country in the world. With a population of over 23 million inhabitants,Zaire was the most populous officially Francophone country in Africa,as well as one of the most populous in Africa.
Laurent-DésiréKabila or more succinctly,Laurent Kabila,was a Congolese revolutionary and politician who served as the third President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1997 until his assassination in 2001.
Kasaï-Oriental was one of the eleven provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1966 and 2015,when it was split into the new,smaller Kasai-Oriental province,the Lomami and the Sankuru provinces.
The Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire,also known by the French acronym AFDL,was a coalition of Rwandan,Ugandan,Burundian,and Congolese dissidents,disgruntled minority groups,and nations that toppled Mobutu Sese Seko and brought Laurent-DésiréKabila to power in the First Congo War. Although the group was successful in overthrowing Mobutu,the alliance fell apart after Kabila did not agree to be dictated by his foreign backers,Rwanda and Uganda,which marked the beginning of the Second Congo War in 1998.
The First Congo War (1996–1997),also nicknamed Africa's First World War,was a civil war and international military conflict which took place mostly in Zaire,with major spillovers into Sudan and Uganda. The conflict culminated in a foreign invasion that replaced Zairean president Mobutu Sese Seko with the rebel leader Laurent-DésiréKabila. Kabila's unstable government subsequently came into conflict with his allies,setting the stage for the Second Congo War in 1998–2003.
Mbuji-Mayi or Mbujimayi is a city and the capital of Kasai-Oriental Province in the south-central Democratic Republic of Congo. It is thought to be the second largest city in the country,after the capital Kinshasa and ahead of Lubumbashi,Kisangani and Kananga,though its exact population is not known. Estimates range from a 2010 CIA World Factbook estimated population of 1,480,000 to as many as 3,500,000 estimated by the United Nations in 2008.
South Kasai was an unrecognised secessionist state within the Republic of the Congo which was semi-independent between 1960 and 1962. Initially proposed as only a province,South Kasai sought full autonomy in similar circumstances to the much larger neighbouring state of Katanga,to its south,during the political turmoil arising from the independence of the Belgian Congo known as the Congo Crisis. Unlike Katanga,however,South Kasai did not explicitly declare full independence from the Republic of the Congo or reject Congolese sovereignty.
Kasaï-Oriental is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Kasaï-Oriental,Lomami,and Sankuru provinces are the result of the dismemberment of the former Kasaï-Oriental province. Kasaï-Oriental was formed from the Tshilenge district and the independently administered city of Mbuji-Mayi which retained its status as a provincial capital.
Articles related to the Democratic Republic of the Congo include:
Societéminière de Bakwanga is a diamond mining company based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Historically,the company was the largest diamond producer in the world by volume. However,following decades of decline,the company currently produces only a small minority of the DRC's diamonds.
This is a history of the Kasai region in the Democratic Republic of Congo and of the political divisions which have occupied it since human settlement began.
Sa MajestéSanga Balende,is a football club that plays in the Democratic Republic of Congo top tier:Vodacom Ligue 1. Sanga Balende is the only club in vodacom Ligue 1,that is from Kasai Oriental,This gives them a lot of popularity around the DRC amongst the people of Kasai Districts. They have one of the biggest fan base around the country. The club is based in the city of Mbuji-Mayi.
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