#VolatileDRCBattle
The explosive arrest on 17 March 2021 of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's business associate Belarusian tycoon Alexander Zingman after meeting ex-president Joseph Kabila involves "a deadly cocktail of mining deals and politics" in DRC, a security source said.
DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Kabika have had a serious fallout after the collapse of the coalition between Heading for Change and the Common Front for Congo since 2018 when the incumbent won disputed elections.
Tshisekedi is now purging Kabila allies.
Tshisekedi has in recent months been purging Kabila's political allies – including Prime minister Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkumba - removed through a vote-of-no-confidence, leading to a collapse of the power-sharing arrangement between them.
In a bid to side-line Kabila, the DRC Parliament supported Christophe Mboso, the National Assembly's oldest member at 79, who had defected from the former president's Common Front for Congo party in December to rally behind Tshisekedi.
This followed the ousting of former speaker Jeanine Mabunda, another Kabila ally, recently and the resignation of Ilunkamba. 
Kabila's other ally Alexis Thambwe Mwamba was also removed as Senate leader.
This then gave Tshisekedi control of the House of Assembly and Senate, leaving Kabila angry and sulking.
Residing since late December at his farm in Kashamata, Kabila is said to have been refining his strategy to counter Tshisekedi’s manoeuvres to consolidate control and push him out.
From Lubumbashi, in Haut-Katanga, Kabila has conducted a series of consultations on the fight back.
Kabila has written to the African Union and United Nations, and has dispatched envoys to South Africa, Egypt and Kenya, among other countries.
That is why he met Mnangagwa in Harare. Zingman is Mnangagwa and Kabila's business ally.
So Kabila wants their help to fight Tshisekedi.
Mnangagwa is part of the Sadc troika on politics, defence and security, together with Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi is the Sadc chair.
"The issue is about politics and deals," the source said.
Mnangagwa and Kabila dealt with each other closely in various deals, some officially recorded through Zimbabwe's moribund Osleg military company, which involved diamonds during the DRC between 1998 and 2002.
Mnangagwa was the late former president Robert Mugabe’s DRC point man.

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More from @NewsHawksLive

26 Mar
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa didn't cite Zimbabwe among countries that helped the ANC in its anti-apartheid struggle in his address at the late Tanzanian president John Magufuli's burial. Ramaphosa thanked Botswana, Lesotho, ESwatini, Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania. Image
This immediately raised interest as Zimbabwe is right on the key border with South Africa.
Ramaphosa's narrative brings into focus the mainstream ANC view that the late former president Robert Mugabe’s and his Zanu PF didn't wholeheartedly support the South African struggle.
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He said he was only prepared to offer symbolic diplomatic and political support to the ANC.
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24 Mar
American economist Steve Hanke says Zimbabwean teachers have rejected a 25% salary raise due to high inflation and that the hike is not the worth the paper and ink on which their contracts are written. ImageImage
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Govt wants to give the rest of the civil service 25% with effect from April, and an extra 50% from June.
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24 Mar
As the opposition in Belarus plans to turn up the heat on long-time authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa's ally who routinely rigs elections, ahead of mass protests, CNN has exposed renewed repression and human rights abuses there. Image
Investigative CNN journalists have been probing abuses for several months. They spoke to Belarusians who have escaped into Ukraine running away from repression. In the story, torture victims talk about political violence, sexual abuse, and vicious brutality by security forces.
Mnangagwa and Lukashenko's middleman, Belarusian tycoon Alexander Zingman, a prominent wheeler-dealer who usually shuttles between the two leaders, has been arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on his way to Harare after meeting former DRC president Joseph Kabila.
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24 Mar
The ownership structure of the Zimbabwe Technology Company (Zitco), which involves TelOne, a Chinese Company and the Office of the President and Cabinet, is under scrutiny.
Zitco makes electronic gadgets locally.
It's unusual for the President's Office to be involved in business. Image
Officially, Zitco is a joint venture between TelOne, Chinese company Inspur and a "government-owned entity", which has not been named.
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24 Mar
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s close business associate Alexander Zingman, a dodgy tycoon with vast networks with African leaders, has been transferred to Kinshasa after his arrest in Lumbumbashi in DRC.
Zimbabwean and other consulates there making frantic bids to release him. Image
Zingman’s company AF Trade DMCC confirmed he was arrested with another Belarusian Oleg Vodchits and Italian businessman Paolo Persico - not yesterday - but on 18 March 2021.
He had held meetings with former president Joseph Kabila and was coming to Harare to see Mnangagwa.
“We are extremely worried,” Henadzi Mosesau from AF Trade DMCC told AFP.
“Despite several attempts by the family, by AF Trade, as well as the US and Zimbabwean consulates to seek information about their well-being, there has been no sign of life for over three days.”
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23 Mar
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s close associate and Zimbabwe's honorary consul to Belarus, Alexander Zingman, being arrested by DRC police after a private meeting with former president Joseph Kabila.
The tycoon cuts deals with Mnangagwa and other leaders.
Zingman was arrested by Congolese police in Lubumbashi today after meeting with former president Joseph Kabila.
He has previously been mentioned in connection with arms deals in Zambia and Zimbabwe – which he has denied.
But he has supplied agricultural to Zimbabwe.
This comes against a backdrop of a serious political fallout between President Felix Tshisekedi and Kabila, a Mnangagwa ally.
Kabila, as only reported by The NewsHawks, was in Harare two weeks ago to secretly meet Mnangagwa. They held a private meeting over private business.
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