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 The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

Early life

Bertin Mwamba was born on 25 September 1932 in Songa,

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

into a

Luba Luba may refer to: Geography *Kingdom of Luba, a pre-colonial Central African empire *Ľubá, a village and municipality in the Nitra region of south-west Slovakia *Luba, Abra, a municipality in the Philippines *Luba, Equatorial Guinea, a town o ...

family. 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. 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.

Career

Mwamba was elected to the

in the election, representing the Haut-Lomami constituency in

Katanga Province Katanga was one of the four large provinces created in the Belgian Congo in 1914. It was one of the eleven provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1966 and 2015, when it was split into the Tanganyika Province, Tanganyika, Hau ...

. Though a member of CONAKAT, he had political differences with party leader

Moïse Tshombe Moïse Kapenda Tshombe (sometimes written Tshombé) (10 November 1919 – 29 June 1969) was a Congolese businessman and politician. He served as the president of the secessionist State of Katanga from 1960 to 1963 and as prime minister of the Re ...

. Thus even though Katanga had

seceded Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics lea ...

under Tshombe's direction, Mwamba returned to his seat in Parliament in August 1961. 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. In November, he successfully secured the office and held it until March 1963. In April, following the termination of the Katangese secession, Prime Minister Cyrille Adoula reshuffled his government and appointed Mwamba Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was re-elected to the Chamber in 1965. That November,

Joseph-Désiré Mobutu Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (; born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997) was a Congolese politician and military officer who was the List of heads of state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, presiden ...

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.

Later life

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.

Citations

References

* * * * * *

External links

Bertin Mwamba
at assemblee-nationale.cd {{DEFAULTSORT:Mwamba, Bertin 1932 births Living people Luba people Government ministers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Presidents of the National Assembly (Democratic Republic of the Congo) People of the Congo Crisis Belgian Congo people Accountants 21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo people