   this is the list of the heads of state of the democratic republic of the congo (formerly zaire) since independence in 1960. the current head of state is president joseph kabila, since 17 january 2001. ==heads of state== (dates in italics indicate de facto continuation of office) {| class="wikitable" style="font-size:85%;" |- align=left ! width="18%"|tenure ! width=60|portrait ! width="55%"|incumbent ! width="10%"|affiliation ! width="15%"|notes |- valign=top |colspan="5"|republic of the congo |- valign=top |colspan="5"|(rÃ©publique du congo) |- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec" |1 july 1960 to 1 august 1964||60px||joseph kasavubu, president||abako|| |- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec" |31 march 1961 to 5 august 1961||60px||antoine gizenga, head of state||mnc (l)||rebel government at stanleyville |- valign=top |colspan="5"|democratic republic of the congo |- valign=top |colspan="5"|(rÃ©publique democratique du congo) |- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec" |1 august 1964 to 24 november 1965||60px||joseph kasavubu, president||abako||deposed in a coup d'Ã©tat |- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec" |24 november 1965 to 27 october 1971||60px||joseph-dÃ©sirÃ© mobutu, president||mil/mpr|| |- valign=top |colspan="5"|republic of zaire |- valign=top |colspan="5"|(rÃ©publique du zaire) |- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec" |27 october 1971 to 10 january 1972||rowspan=2|60px||joseph-dÃ©sirÃ© mobutu, president||rowspan=2|mpr||changed name to mobutu sese seko |- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec" |10 january 1972 to 16 may 1997||mobutu sese seko, president||deposed at the end of the first congo war |- valign=top |colspan="5"|[[
Government_of_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo Lists_of_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo_people Lists_of_heads_of_state Lists_of_presidents Politics_of_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo