{"id":35339,"date":"2017-06-26T13:07:17","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T13:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/zuma-lauds-embattled-kabila-on-progress-in-drc\/"},"modified":"2017-06-26T13:07:12","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T13:07:12","slug":"zuma-lauds-embattled-kabila-on-progress-in-drc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/zuma-lauds-embattled-kabila-on-progress-in-drc\/","title":{"rendered":"Zuma lauds embattled Kabila on \u2018progress\u2019 in DRC\u201a despite protest outside talks venue"},"content":{"rendered":"

{President Jacob Zuma on Sunday congratulated his counterpart President Joseph Kabila on what he said was progress made in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.}<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gather here at a time when your country is going through a political transition following the December 2016 political agreement. This agreement charted a process that should lead to the next elections. We congratulate you\u201a Mr President\u201a on the progress achieved thus far and the manner with which you have handled the process\u201a\u201d Zuma said.<\/p>\n

This was contradictory to what Jean Bwasa\u201a a human rights activist and spokesperson for the Congolese community living in South Africa had earlier told TimesLIVE he was hoping to hear from Zuma.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Zuma should act as \u2018an uncle figure\u2019 and advise Kabila to hand over power\u201a\u201d said Bwasa.<\/p>\n

He was one of a handful of DRC citizens who had gathered outside the Sefako Makgatho presidential guesthouse in protest as a bi-national commission (BNC) meeting was held between delegates of the two countries.<\/p>\n

Bwasa explained that as stated in the DRC constitution\u201a Kabila should have organised fresh elections in December last year in preparation for his successor.<\/p>\n

This did not happen. Instead\u201a negotiations about the future of the country dragged on until December 31 when a deal \u2013 stating that Kabila will only step down after elections are held by the end of 2017- was brokered.<\/p>\n

No official date\u201a has however been set for the elections.<\/p>\n

Zuma seemed oblivious to the anti-Kabila protests happening outside the premises\u201a even as protesters used a hailer to declare that Kabila was an illegitimate president who was clinging on to power.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DRC is now politically stable and the security situation has improved. Where there are still challenges\u201a the government of the DRC\u201a with the assistance of the region\u201a continent and international community\u201a is addressing those. In this regard\u201a we encourage you\u201a Mr President\u201a and your government to continue on this path\u201a\u201d Zuma said.<\/p>\n

He called on the people of the DRC to negotiate and hold dialogue about their future and pledged South Africa\u2019s support for the central African nation.<\/p>\n

The meeting between the two heads of state seemingly cemented their relations\u201a with plans being put in place to bolster trade and investment.<\/p>\n

But Esale-Prince Mpinda of the National Council of the Congolese for Development in SA said the meeting between Zuma and Kabila would be fruitless.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the DRC officially has a new government\u201a whatever agreements are reached between Zuma and Kabila would be regarded void\u201a\u201d Mpinda said.<\/p>\n

\u201dIt is a private meeting and the Congolese government tomorrow will not consider any signature which Kabila puts down\u201a\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"Congolese<\/figure>\n

Source:Times Live <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{President Jacob Zuma on Sunday congratulated his counterpart President Joseph Kabila on what he said was progress made in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.} \u201cWe gather here at a time when your country is going through a political transition following the December 2016 political agreement. This agreement charted a process that should lead to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2620],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-35339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-times-live"],"bylines":[{"id":2620,"name":"Times Live","slug":"times-live","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2620,"name":"Times Live","slug":"times-live","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35339"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=35339"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=35339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}