Accused of seeking constitutional change to conceal governance failures, Jean-Claude Tshilumbayi fired back on Friday evening during a live online discussion by presenting a detailed inventory of what he calls the administration’s accomplishments since 2019.
On the social front, the first vice-president of the National Assembly highlighted free primary education, which he said brought 6 million children back into classrooms, and free childbirth services for 2.5 million Congolese women.
Regarding civil service, he revealed that the UDPS inherited in 2018 one million employees hired without payroll numbers or salaries during Shadary’s election campaign, plus 400,000 “new units” that had received no income for years.
“We paid them all,” he affirmed.
The health sector report was equally striking: the country had 1,700 doctors earning $300 each; now there are 7,800 paid $2,400. Magistrates, who used to earn $400, and police officers, who took home just $80 a month, have all seen salary increases.
On infrastructure, Tshilumbayi claimed construction of world-class universities, seven major hospitals including the Mama Yemo Hospital abandoned since 1917, 1,500 schools, and several airports, plus an expansion of the road network from 3,000 to 9,000 kilometers over seven years.
As for the state budget, he said it grew from $3 billion to $18 billion in seven years, with foreign exchange reserves that “simply exploded.”
“To say that we talk about the constitution to hide a governance failure is a ridiculous debate,” he concluded, before posing what he considers the real question: “By what means should our people express themselves?”
