Police fire at anti-Kabila protesters in South Africa

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG (AA) - Police in South Africa’s capital Pretoria have fired rubber bullets to disperse about 400 Congolese protesters who had gathered outside their embassy to demand that President Joseph Kabila steps down.

“The police was forced to fire at the protesters after they started throwing stones at the embassy,” provincial police spokesman Kay Makhubela told Anadolu Agency Tuesday.

He said a protester had also grabbed a firearm from a police officer. “We have arrested four protesters who will be appearing in court for malicious damage to property and theft of a firearm,” he said.

Congolese community leader Olivier Kalala said they had gathered at the embassy to show solidarity with other Congolese nationals around the world who are also protesting.

“Kabila is no longer our president; his term expired on Dec. 19 but he has refused to relinquish power,” he said.

Opposition parties and civil society groups accuse Kabila of trying to cling on to power after his second term in office expired on Monday without him organizing elections.

However, the country’s electoral commission has said that more time was needed to register voters and find funding for the process.

Meanwhile, in Cape Town, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas Monday to disperse more than 300 Congolese protesters.

Kanyiki Ngooyi a Congolese community leader in Cape Town told Anadolu Agency via telephone that many of his colleagues were injured during the incident.

“Bullets and tear gas will not deter us from demanding that Kabila musty go,” he said.

Tens of thousands of Congolese nationals reside in South Africa where they sought asylum after years of conflict in their country.

- 3rd unconstitutional mandate

On Monday evening a transitional government to lead the country until the next elections in 2018 was announced on state TV, in line with a deal signed last October between the government and some smaller opposition parties.

The country’s main opposition parties boycotted both the dialogue and the final agreement. The agreement was validated by the Constitutional Court.

In power since 2001, Kabila was elected in 2006 and reelected in 2011. The opposition suspects him of maneuvering to seek a third unconstitutional mandate.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has seen several anti-Kabila demonstrations in the past few months as opposition parties and civil groups call on the president to step down at the end of his two-term mandate this month.

In late September, at least 53 people – including seven women, two children, and four police officers – were killed in Kinshasa, according to the UN Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO).