Moïse Katumbi Chapwe (French pronunciation: [mɔiz katœ̃bi]; born 28 December 1964) is a Congolese businessman and politician.
[4] Moïse Katumbi was born on 28 December 1964 to a Zambian mother and a Sephardic Jewish father from Greece, Nissim Soriano.
[10] His older half-brother is Raphael Katebe Katoto, a businessman and retired politician who was a member of RCD-Goma[11] and led a political party that opposed Congolese president Joseph Kabila in 2006.
[14][15] He has been the subject of two documentaries by director Thierry Michel: Katanga Business (2009)[5] and The Irresistible Rise of Moïse Katumbi (2014).
[5][18] In 1987, he created the holding company Etablissement Katumbi to aggregate all of his business activities including mining, transportation, and food processing.
He returned to the DRC in 2003 by invitation from President Kabila, who urged Katumbi to help fix the mining industry in Katanga.
[20][21] Katumbi has invested heavily in the team and been credited by the media and public as one of the reasons for the club's success.
[2][20] Katumbi began a football academy in 2012 as a social program to engage and train young Congolese people in the province of Katanga.
[29] Along with mining, Katumbi focused on expanding other areas of the province's economy including the service industry, energy and agriculture.
[31] In the spring of 2017, an ad hoc committee of the Episcopal Conference of the Democratic Republic of the Congo headed by Bishop Félicien Mwanama Galumbulula of Luisa investigated the case, deemed its prosecution politically motivated, and recommended Katumbi be allowed to return to the DRC a free man.
[citation needed] On 12 March 2018, Katumbi officially launched his presidential campaign as well as his new political alliance, Ensemble pour le changement (Together for Change).
[39] On 9 June, Katumbi gave his first presidential campaign speech via Skype to thousands of supporters in Kinshasa.
[43] Those close to him are discussing with MONUSCO about Katumbi's return to the country before the presidential filing deadline on 10 August.
[46] The same day, Ensemble's secretary general Delly Sesanga announced that they would file for Katumbi to run for president even if he was not in the country.
[47] When the final list of retained candidate for the December 23rd election was out, his name was missing since he did not make it to return home and file for his candidature.
[49] On 13 July 2023, Chérubin Okende, former minister and spokesman of Katumbi's party, was shot dead in Kinshasa.
[50] According to the official results, Katumbi finished runner-up to Tshisekedi by a large margin in the December 2023 presidential election, recording 18 percent of the vote.
He disputed the election results on the grounds of "massive fraud and treachery" and on 6 January 2024 released a statement calling for the resignation of the head of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
[15] In January 2016, Katumbi joined other high-profile Congolese figures in a coalition dubbed "Front Citoyen 2016".