He was believed to have a fortune of £6bn, roughly equivalent to the country’s national debt. He left the army at 25 and became editor of Actualit?Africaines, a radical paper launched by Patrice Lumumba. Wherever you go, in Europe or the US, families of heads of states have the means to live,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned it’s pure nonsense.” Like father, like son?The MobutusMobutu Sese Seko was born Joseph-Desire Mobutu to a cook and hotel maid In 1949 he was conscripted into colonial Congolese army. Fears that the Mobutists could galvanise into a fresh political force appear premature The MPR has split into two factions. Mrs Nzuzi, who leads one wing, recently slapped her rival on the face in public.

One Western diplomat said: “For now the Mobutists are a diffuse lot … their return shows the astonishing capacity for reconciliation in Congo.”Picking the morsels from the Leopard’s teeth is Mobutu’s last mystery. Estimates of the wealth frittered away by Mobutu vary wildly, between $4bn and $14bn Switzerland impounded $4m and a lakeside villa. “When the children of the Leopard appear before those who have been devoured, we look on them with suspicion,” he said.

But the location of the remainder ­ some doubt it still exists ­ remains a puzzle.Are Nzanga and his family sitting on the missing billions? He shrugs impatiently “I’ve been asked the same thing for years. Like the Leopard, she walks with a cane, but hers came from injuries sustained during her time in prison.Now she has been appointed Minister for Solidarity and Humanitarian Affairs, and Congo’s poor are her charges. But as there are no offices yet, Mrs Nzuzi works from home, the opulent penthouse of a four-storey apartment building she had built in the 1970s, at the height of Mobutu’s powers.The return sparked divided opinions at the “pavement parliament”, an informal meeting of politics junkies at a newspaper stand in the rundown Matonge neighbourhood. The Mobutu brothers coming back was “not a big problem”, said Andre Pembe “They are sons of this country. That is it.” But Jacques Benameyi, a human rights activist, disagreed. “Why should I have left?” she said in explanation.”I stole nothing.