For the first time in the exercise of parliamentary control in the DRC, the majority of deputies present at the National Assembly on the evening of Wednesday 30 March dismissed the Minister of the Economy, Jean-Marie Kalumba.
He was accused of the soaring prices of goods on the market throughout the country. The deputy of the government coalition, the Sacred Union, had initiated the motion of no confidence against this close friend of the president of the Senate, Modeste Bahati, but the minister had difficulty convincing the elected members of his own camp and left the hemicycle during the vote.
In front of a hostile assembly, Minister Jean-Marie Kalumba said he was a victim of “those who profit from illicit practices” in his sector. After his hearing without debate, the president of the National Assembly Christophe Mboso called the vote: “Out of 368 deputies who took part in the vote, 277 voted for the motion, 77 voted against, 12 voted abstention.”
The minister has now resigned. “This proves that in the Sacred Union, there is democracy. What we want is that there is a framework for the prices of basic necessities,” explains one of the defeated, the deputy Crispin Mbindule, author of the motion of no confidence.
Disappointment was perceptible among the deputies of the Alliance des forces démocratiques du Congo, from which the dismissed minister came. Many were reluctant to react, believing that the dismissal was in fact a settling of scores within the Sacred Union coalition. Jean-Marie Lukulasi said, “We should have come to an agreement differently. We are in the Sacred Union.
The Prime Minister’s office announced that Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde will take urgent measures this week to calm the “speculation that has been going on in the markets” for several weeks.