20110313
reuters

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese President Joseph Kabila has fired two ministers from junior coalition partners in what analysts believe is part of a bid by his party to assert itself before elections in November.

Information Minister Lambert Mende confirmed on Saturday that Vice Prime Minister Nzanga Mobutu, son of the late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, had been sacked on Thursday for spending more than three months in Europe.

The minister for rural development, Philippe Undji, lost his job on Friday and is facing corruption charges, Mende said.

Both men were part of the coalition that has backed Kabila since 2006, when he was elected in Democratic Republic of Congo's first democratic vote.

"The two cases are quite different," Information Minister Lambert Mende told Reuters by telephone.

"Mobutu was fired for the time he spent in Europe without giving any explanation. We think he wasn't prepared to work. Undji was fired over an issue of embezzlement."

Neither Mobutu, a member of the minority UDEMO party and also labour minister, nor Undji, a former militia fighter in the 1998-2003 Congolese war, was immediately available for comment.

Observers say Kabila has long been keen to reshuffle his government and centralise power around his own party, the PPRD, reducing his reliance on coalition allies.