PRESIDENT Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire has finally and dramatically lost his hold on power after 32 years of autocratic rule. His corrupt regime is on the point of collapse following his departure yesterday from the besieged capital of Kinshasa.
"The president reigns but he doesn't govern," the Zairean Information Minister, Mr Kin-Kiey Mulumba, told a hastily-convened press conference in the capital yesterday. "The president has ceased to play any role in state affairs. It is now up to the government to conduct the nation's political affairs."
Asked if the position of president was now vacant, the Information Minister refused to reply.
Mr Mobutu, who has flown to his jungle retreat in northern Zaire, has been given until Monday to resign. The ultimatum was issued by the rebel leader, Mr Laurent Kabila, whose forces are poised to seize Kinshasa. It is not thought the army will mount a defence of the capital.
There is widespread speculation in the city that Mr Mobutu has gone for good. Reliable sources indicate that from his ancestral village of Gbadolite on the Zaire River he will fly to Morocco where much of his family has already sought refuge. He could be in the north African country by tomorrow.
"According to the latest information we have, Mobutu will visit Morocco in the coming 48 hours," said a western diplomat yesterday morning. "It seems that he has chosen Morocco as a place for exile."
Mr Kabila issued his ultimatum to Mr Mobutu after a meeting on Thursday evening with the South African President, Mr Nelson Mandela, and the UN special envoy, Mr Mohamed Sahnoun. According to the terms of the proposals, Mr Mobutu will be succeeded by a transitional authority which will run Zaire for an unspecified period until elections take place.
It is understood that Mr Kabila and his Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire will dominate the interim authority. The only concession offered to the cancer-stricken dictator by the rebels is that he can remain in Zaire once he stands down. Although he has repeatedly confounded popular opinion by returning to his homeland after seeking medical treatment in Europe and attending peace talks in Congo, the ailing president is thought unlikely to accept the offer.
On Thursday evening, the regime's generals told Mr Mobutu they could neither defend the capital nor guarantee his personal safety if he remained there. His palace at Gbadolite is understood to be guarded by Serb mercenaries. However, it cannot be long before the rebels over-run the president's sumptuous jungle sanctuary.
"We're happy Mobutu's gone," said one young man, a member of the capital's so-called "standing parliament", a streetside political debating circle. "We hope he's gone forever. We're waiting for Kabila with open arms."
With the city's airport closed to international flights, better-off inhabitants are fleeing across the Zaire River to the Congolese capital of Brazzaville.
As the insurgents close on Kinshasa, military barracks around the capital are continuing to empty. Considerable numbers of government troops in Kinshasa are believed to have deserted their posts and gone home.
Paid on average less than £1 per month, rank-and-file soldiers cannot afford to take themselves and their families into exile. In less than eight months of civil war, the rebels have hardly had to engage the government forces who have fled in disarray.
Only Angolan guerrillas from Angola's Unita movement, fighting alongside the Zairean army, have offered any significant resistance. Using tactics perfected by their Rwandan and Ugandan backers, the rebels choose to advance on their objectives in pincer formation, always leaving a gap so their enemy can retreat.
"Kabila's men are well organised and disciplined," one western military analyst commented. "They announce their arrival in advance, giving the other side time to leave. What started off as a conventional guerrilla conflict is now a much more conventional war with units of infantry moving forward on a number of fronts."
The effective power vacuum created by the departure of Mr Mobutu means that Mr Kabila is unlikely to waste much time in occupying Kinshasa. According to one western diplomat his forces could move on the capital this weekend. It is believed his first objective will be to cease control of the city's airport.