The heat is on, suffocating on DRC’s inept ruler Felix Tshisekedi.
The Thabo Mbeki Foundation has convened all the major players in Congolese politics for a Conference on Peace and Security, from September 3 to 6 in South Africa. This signals that the world is increasingly seeking solutions without Tshilombo.
The guest list alone is a political earthquake: Joseph Kabila, Moïse Katumbi, Vital Kamerhe, Corneille Nangaa, Delly Sesanga, Martin Fayulu, Claudel Lubaya, Jean-Jacques Lumumba, members of Tshisekedi’s cabinet, and representatives from CENCO, ECC, and the CRP. That former South African president Thabo Mbeki personally curated this lineup makes it clear DRC’s future is being discussed with or without the Kinshasa regime head, who has proven incapable of governing.
From Washington to Doha, Luanda, Nairobi, and now South Africa, the international community has made repeated efforts to broker peace in the DRC, only to be blocked by the same wall: Tshisekedi. Every negotiation led by figures like João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, Uhuru Kenyatta, Faure Gnassingbé, Olusegun Obasanjo, Massad Boulos, and Qatar’s Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani has run into his incompetence.
But the crisis in eastern DRC, fueled by Tshisekedi’s erratic behavior, has exhausted almost everyone. And so, Mbeki now steps in.
As the architect of the 2003 Sun City Agreement, he forged a deal celebrated as a beacon of hope and stability, yet one that was never fully implemented.
The South Africa conference, therefore, is a clear message that the Congolese and the international community are determined to find a path forward with or without Tshisekedi.
The implications for Tshisekedi are devastating. He has lost the trust of regional leaders. African elder statesmen like Sahle-Work Zewde, Catherine Samba-Panza, Olusegun Obasanjo, Uhuru Kenyatta, and Mokgweetsi Masisi are aligning on dialogue that excludes his interference, exposing the accidental president as increasingly irrelevant. By uniting opposition figures, civil society, churches, and insiders from his regime, Mbeki’s initiative highlights the isolation of a leader who once fancied himself indispensable.
From Goma to Johannesburg, the walls are closing in on inept Tshilombo, and no amount of scapegoating Rwanda, Kabila or M23/AFC can change this reality.
ellenkampire