Facing accusations that constitutional changes aim to hide governance failures, Jean-Claude Tshilumbayi responded on Friday evening during Stanis Bujakera Tshiamala’s Live Space X session with a detailed inventory of what he described as the achievements of the administration since 2019.
On the social front, the first vice-president of the National Assembly highlighted free education, which he said brought 6 million children back to school, and free maternity care for 2.5 million Congolese women.
Regarding the civil service, he revealed that the UDPS inherited in 2018 a million civil servants hired without payroll numbers or salaries during Shadary’s electoral campaign, along with 400,000 “new units” who had received no pay for years.
“We paid all of them,” he stated.
The health sector record presented was equally striking: the country had 1,700 doctors paid $300 each. Now, he said, there are 7,800 doctors earning $2,400. Magistrates who earned $400 and police officers who were paid only $80 per month have all seen salary increases.
On infrastructure, Tshilumbayi claimed the construction of world-class universities, seven major hospitals including Mama Yemo Hospital (abandoned since 1917), 1,500 schools, and several airports, along with an expansion of the road network from 3,000 to 9,000 kilometers in seven years.
As for the state budget, he said it grew from $3 billion to $18 billion over seven years, with foreign exchange reserves that “simply exploded.”
“Claiming that the constitution is being discussed to hide a governance failure is a ridiculous debate,” he concluded, before posing what he sees as the real question: “Through what channel should our people express themselves?”
