The Zaire crisis will not end with President Mobutu Sese Seko's appointment of Nguza Karl-I-Bond as his fifth prime minister this year. The embattled dictator had promised that appointment to the opposition umbrella group, Sacred Union, which insists that Etienne Tshisekedi be prime minister until elections are held. Mr. Mobutu sacked Mr. Tshisekedi in October for independence and denying the president access to the treasury.

Mr. Nguza, who has been vice president and ambassador to Washington, has broken with President Mobutu five times and returned to the fold as often. He is not a credible oppositionist. He is not what the soldiers who mutinied in Kinshasa were demanding. Mr. Tshisekedi was not what was wrong. President Mobutu was, and remains so.