I also heard about this story. Quite said there was not anyone in the cultural ministry to intervene and try to achieve something that is similar to this recent initiative. For example, if they declared OK Jazz a national heritage by law, maybe they could have kept it alive somehow and secure it from personal manipulations. Just a guess, though... Quite said nobody felt the importance of it. Not even Mobutu, that is a shame, too, considering how good his relation was with Franco, and that he wrote him several songs that praised him and supported him on elections. To those songs, the musicians added their own talent, too.