Abstract
This is the first of four chapters that constitute the empirical section of the book. It applies the conceptual and theoretical views in Chapter 3 to the historical development of the labour market in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by tracing the country’s past labour market and its contribution to the current shape of the market. Hence, the chapter analyses the implementation of the forced labour regime in the Congo Free State (1885–1908) and the racialised dual labour market in the Belgian Congo (1908–1960) and shows how wars in the country balkanised its post-independence labour market (1960–1965) and how the labour market experienced endless regress during President Mobutu (1965–1997) and President Laurent-Désiré Kabila’s (1997–2001) respective administrations. The chapter further examines factors that conditioned and inhibited attempts by the state to achieve post-war labour market reconstruction between 2003 and 2019 in President Joseph Kabila’s administration (2001–2019).
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Notes
- 1.
This was a gendarmerie and military force throughout the period of Belgian colonial rule.
- 2.
On the 16 January 2001, the President Laurent D. Kabila was killed by his bodyguard. Then, the Minister of information officially announced that the Congolese government found it convenient to designate Joseph Kabila as the successor of his father (see Nzongola-Ntalaja 2004).
- 3.
Corruption in the public labour market was enacted in two ways in particular. In what was colloquially called an opération retour (‘return operation’), a person would be hired if he/she agreed to pay 10% of the salary to the person who hired him/her. And in a promotion canapée (with a canapé being a decorative sofa), a woman will be hired or promoted if she agrees to grant sexual favours to the person hiring her.
- 4.
In a promotion canapée (with a canapé being a decorative sofa), a woman will be hired or promoted if she agrees to grant sexual favours to the person hiring her.
- 5.
Nouvelles Unités were new recruits who did not have a civil service registration number because they were not yet integrated into the public administration system. They were recognised only by their employers (line ministries, provincial governments, and public enterprises) (Ministère de la Fonction Publique 2014).
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Inaka, S.J., Nshimbi, C.C., Tshimpaka, L.M. (2023). Dynamics in the Making of Labour Markets. In: The Reconstruction of Post-War Labour Markets in The Southern African Development Community. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37357-2_4
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