By RFIPalled on 20-05-2019Modified on 20-05-2019 at 18:22
Four months after coming to power, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi has appointed Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba as Prime Minister on Monday, May 20th. Ex-Minister, he was until now Director General of the National Railway Company (SNCC).
His name had already circulated for several days as the figure of compromise between the outgoing president and the new head of state, Felix Tshisekedi. Former adviser to Mobutu and from the same province as Joseph Kabila, Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba has been in politics for more than 30 years. Deputy Minister of the Economy from 1981 to 1983, he was then Senior Advisor to the Presidency on Economic and Financial Affairs from 1986 to 1987, then Minister of Planning and Minister of Finance.
He held a number of ministerial portfolios before inheriting from the National Railway Company in 2014, a company that has been facing serious financial difficulties for years. A decline that Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba failed to curb, with employees who today have 227 months of salary arrears.
This new Prime Minister is in any case perceived as a technocrat rather than a political animal. At the age of 74, he is considered to be conciliatory and fragile health. All these elements probably explain that the difficult discussions between Joseph Kabila and Felix Tshisekedi have finally given birth to this name.
It is a compromise figure, therefore, between the Common Front for Congo Joseph Kabila, majority in Parliament - so entitled to appoint a prime minister from its ranks - and the new head of state, Felix Tshisekedi.
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