Zaire Republic President Joseph Mobutu has announced that all the country's cities and towns with foreign names will have them changed to local ones. Speaking at the western town of Bandundu on December 31, his decision came at the last stop of a 27-day tour of the country. Even the Avenue Charles de Gaulle, he later said, would be renamed "despite the admiration that we have for this illustrious Frenchman". All foreign monuments would also be withdrawn from squares and kept in the National Museum.

It was only a day earlier that the President had said that Ministers, heads of nationalised companies and other officials who could not prove the their property was honestly acquired, would lose it in a purge starting on January I. Despite these vigorous moves, President Mobutu's visit to Bandundu was an occasion for popular acclaim.