The body of Etienne Tshisekedi, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s revered opposition leader and former prime minister, arrived in Kinshasa on Thursday, an emotional moment for the country after his son Felix became president earlier this year.
An opponent of authoritarianism in DRC, Tshisekedi died in Belgium in February 2017 at the age of 84, unable to witness his son’s victory in bitterly contested elections at the end of last year.
Felix Tshisekedi vowed to repatriate his father’s remains and bury them in his home country – a goal that faced multiple obstacles under his predecessor Joseph Kabila.
After a last-minute delay to a scheduled Wednesday departure, a jet carrying the body arrived from Brussels in Kinshasa airport on Thursday evening.
His son Felix led a delegation at the airport, where a hearse decorated in the national colours waited, journalists at the scene said.
A white coffin draped in the national, flag was unloaded from the plane and escorted away by white-gloved attendants. Several thousand supporters and well-wishers waited outside the airport.
The programme of mourning includes a display of the body, a mass and rally on Friday at an 80,000-seat stadium in Kinshasa.
It will be followed by a funeral on Saturday in Nsele, on the eastern outskirts of the capital. Six African heads of state are expected, including the presidents of Angola, the neighbouring Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Togo, according to the DRC presidency.
Thorn in dictator’s side
Etienne Tshisekedi spent decades in politics but never reached the top job.
He served as interior minister under Mobutu Sese Seko, before joining the opposition, where he was a persistent thorn in the dictator’s side.
He co-founded the UDPS in 1982 after a stint in prison and in the 1990s was appointed prime minister several times, each time falling out with Mobutu after a matter of months or even days.
In 1997, Mobutu was ousted in a rebellion led by Joseph Kabila’s father Laurent. Tshisekedi quickly became an opponent of the new regime, a stance that continued after Laurent Kabila’s assassination in 2001 and the rise of his son Joseph.
Tshisekedi refused to recognise Kabila’s legitimacy to the very last.
He boycotted the country’s elections in 2006 on the grounds of fraud, and was beaten in the 2011 ballot, which was tainted by massive irregularities.
“His fight for democracy, freedom and dignity inspires us all,” opponent Moise Katumbi, Congolese politician and businessman, wrote in a message on Twitter.
Almost two years after his death, Felix Tshisekedi was sworn in January 24 as president after elections that saw Kabila step down after 18 years in power.
It was the first peaceful transition of power since the DRC gained independence from Belgium in 1960.
The handover however was marred by allegations of election rigging and by Kabila’s continued domination of politics after amassing extensive clout during his years in office.