April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

So, when in January 1960, the Belgian government invited all Congolese
parties to a roundtable conference in Brussels to discuss political change
and write a new constitution for the country, and the MNC refused to
participate unless Lumumba was at its head, the Belgian government had
no choice but to release Lumumba from prison and fly him to Brussels. It
was at this conference that Lumumba showed his mettle - rising above the
divisive politics that the Belgians wanted to promote among the various
ethnic groupings, and uniting them on one central objective -
independence. He managed to get a date agreed for independence – 30
June 1960.
Lumumba returned from Brussels to contest the national elections that
were held in May 1960: a mere one month to independence. I draw your
attention again to the huge size of the Congo and the absence of anything
in the country that resembled adequate infrastructure. This made it wellnigh
impossible to campaign for elections on a national scale and of the 50
parties that put up candidates only two - Lumumba’s MNC and the Parti
National du Progrès or PNP bothered to field candidates in provinces other
than where their leadership originated from.
Here is how the larger of the 50 parties that took part in the May 1960
general election performed:
MNC-L [L for Lumumba] was strongest in Oriental Province (Eastern Congo)
and was led by Patrice Lumumba. It won nearly a quarter of the seats in
the lower house of the Congolese Parliament (33 out of 137) - thus
garnering the highest number of seats for any single party.
In the province of Léopoldville, Parti Solidaire Africain or PSA (led by
Antoine Gizenga) narrowly defeated the ABAKO party of Joseph Kasavubu).
In Katanga province, Confédération des Associations Tribales de Katanga or
CONAKAT, led by Moise Tshombé, won narrowly over its main rival, the
Association Générale des Baluba de Katanga, or BALUBAKAT, led by Jason
Sendwe.
In Kivu, the Centre de Regroupement Africain, CEREA of Anicet Kashamura,
won but didn't obtain a majority. MNC-L came second there. MNC-L also
won in Kasaï, despite being obliged to fight against a splinter faction that
had become MNC-K (under the leadership of Albert Kalonji, Joseph Iléo and
Cyrille Adoula). In the Eastern province, the MNC-L won a clear majority
over the PNP, its only major adversary. Finally, in the province of
Equateur, PUNA (led by Jean Bolikango and UNIMO (led by Justin Bomboko)
were the victors.
But as stated above, it was not Lumumba who, based on his performance
at the elections, was first called upon by the Belgians to try to form a
government. That honour went, instead, to the ABAKO leader, Joseph
Kasavubu. But he failed, and it was then that Lumumba was asked to form
a government. To the Belgians’ surprise, Lumumba succeeded in doing so.
He clobbered together a coalition whose members were:
UNC and COAKA (Kasaï), CEREA (Kivu), PSA (Léopoldville) and BALUBAKAT
(Katanga). The parties in opposition to the coalition were PNP, MNC-K
(Kasaï), ABAKO (Léopoldville), CONAKAT (Katanga), PUNA and UNIMO
(Equateur) and RECO (Kivu).
It was at this stage that Lumumba demonstrated how far-sighted he was.
He convinced his coalition partners that the opposition parties should
å≈not be ignored and he proposed that they should elect Joseph Kasavubu,