Nzanga Mobutu

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François Joseph Nzanga Mobutu Ngbangawe (born 1970) was a candidate in the 2006 presidential election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is the eldest son of former Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko by his former mistress (later second wife), Bobi Landawa. Nzanga is the chairman of the Union of Mobutist Democrats (UDEMO), a collection of political parties and civil society associations and non-governmental organisations advocating the restoration of peace, national unity and territorial integrity. He is most popular in the northwestern province of Équateur, from whence his father hailed. He came in fourth place and received about 4.8% of the vote.^[1] He is married to Cathy Bemba, a sister of fellow 2006 presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba, with whom he has three children. Nzanga studied in Belgium, France and Canada before returning to the country in the mid-90s to become an advisor to his father, the then president Mobutu, before fleeing into exile when rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila took control in May 1997. Following the 2006 elections, he was able to get his younger brother, Albert Philipe Giala Kassa Mobutu (b. 1972) as well as 8 other individuals elected as a members of the 500-member newly elected DR Congo legislative body. Following the first round of voting, Nzanga Mobutu entered into a platform political coalition with incumbent and future president elect Joseph Kabila to try to rally votes from the Equateur region where Jean-Pierre Bemba was favored to win. The coalition also involved the political party PALU of Antoine Gizenga.

Gizenga became prime minister in December 2006, and Mobutu was named minister of state for agriculture when Gizenga's government was announced on February 5, 2007,^[2] ranking second in the government after Gizenga.^[3]