Rdc’s seven-year governance scorecard: from $3 billion to $18 billion budget, 6 million children in school, 9,000 km of roads – Jean Claude Tshilumbayi responds to critics

Facing allegations that his push to amend the constitution is meant to cover up governance failures, Jean-Claude Tshilumbayi fired back Friday evening during a Live Space X session hosted by Stanis Bujakera Tshiamala. He offered a detailed account of what he calls the achievements of the administration since 2019.

On the social front, the first vice-president of the National Assembly highlighted free primary education, which he says has brought six million children back into classrooms, and free childbirth services for 2.5 million Congolese women.

Regarding the civil service, Tshilumbayi revealed that the UDPS inherited in 2018 about one million employees who had been hired without payroll numbers or salaries during Shadary’s electoral campaign, plus 400,000 “new units” who had received no pay for years.

“We have paid all of them,” he stated.

The health sector record is equally striking. The country had 1,700 doctors earning $300 each; today there are 7,800 paid $2,400. Magistrates, previously on $400, and police officers, formerly earning just $80 per month, have all received 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. He also noted the road network expanded from 3,000 to 9,000 km in seven years.

As for the state budget, he said it grew from $3 billion to $18 billion over seven years, with foreign reserves that have “simply exploded.”

“Claiming that the constitutional debate is a way to hide governance failure is a ridiculous argument,” he concluded, before posing what he sees as the real question: “Through what channel should our people express themselves?”