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Date : 06/07/2003
Source: Department of Foreign Affairs
Title: Dlamini Zuma: Executive Council of the African Union


STATEMENT OF THE OUTGOING CHAIRPERSON OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL, HE DR NKOSAZANA DLAMINI ZUMA, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, AT THE THIRD ORDINARY SESSION OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF THE AFRICAN UNION, Maputo, Mozambique, 6 July 2003

His Excellency, Dr Pascoal Mocumbi, Prime Minister of the Republic of Mozambique;
Your Excellency and my dear brother, Dr Leonard Simao, Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Relations of Republic of Mozambique;
Your Excellency, Mr Amara Essy, Interim Chairperson of the African Union and Interim Commissioners;
Your Excellency, Dr KY Amoako, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa;
Honourable Ministers, Brothers and Sisters;
Distinguished Ambassadors
Ladies and Gentlemen;

It is indeed a pleasure to be meeting in this beautiful city of Maputo this year in preparation for the Assembly of Heads of State and Government meeting. I am certain that you will concur with me in thanking, through our Brother Dr Simao, the Government and people of Mozambique for the warm hospitality and excellent conference arrangements which will assist in facilitating our work. My Brother, we are appreciative of all the time, effort and resources that your government has put at our disposal.

As we Africans converge on this beautiful city of Maputo, conscious of our historic mission determined to bring about a fundamental socio-economic and political transformation of our continent, we remain alert that our conference takes place in an international environment that is fundamentally changed and continues to demonstrate symptoms of volatility.

As we Africans continue to struggle against the impact of globalisation and to turn the tide against marginalisation, underdevelopment and poverty for Africa's renewal, we now also have to deal with the consequences of the war in Iraq and the situation in the Middle East.

From this hallowed hall, must emerge our clarion call, that to successfully face the challenges facing our continent and indeed humanity the world over, we have no alternative save to act as part of a united international collective leadership of the world.

Honourable Ministers,

We have come together as we have done for the past forty years because we share a painful past and a common destiny.

As Africans, we have fully understood that maximum unity and solidarity was needed, understanding that none other than ourselves could liberate the continent.

If we are to succeed, we must, in extricating our continent from the crisis of the crises of poverty, disease and underdevelopment, we must intensify our solidarity and strengthen our unity.

We are blessed with the unique opportunity to shape fundamentally the future development of our continent. As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of the OAU, in truth, we were celebrating the victory of our founders whose vision, gallant and heroic struggles against colonialism and apartheid secured our freedom and preserved our dignity.

The establishment of the AU and the development of its programme, NEPAD, has given us a framework for the creation of peace and stability, democracy and good governance. We have the blueprint for dealing with the indignity of poverty, ignorance, and economic marginalisation.

I am convinced that we have the determination, commitment, political will and inner strength to implement the NEPAD programme and set up the institutions with the necessary sense of urgency.

However, central to our success is the understanding that the African Union has to be more than just the sum of its member states. We must all accept that the African Union has to be more than just the sum of its member states. We must all accept that the African Union is the organisation in which the common good of the continent is advanced and promoted. This will require the acceptance by us all to act in a manner that balances the collective interest of the continent over individual national interests. This is not always easy to do but it is imperative that the collective interest of the continent should take pride of place in our dealing with continental matters.

Individual and national interests in dealing with our continental organisation should not stand in the way of progress in the creation of a better life for all our people on the continent and beyond.

Fellow brothers and sisters,

The success of this Summit depends on whether we can and will appoint the Commission, which is the engine room of the AU and necessary to enable the AU to lift off.

The Assembly and the Executive Council expressed that this should be done in a manner that respects regional distribution and gender balance. Women are a precious resource and they need to be brought into our continental organisation and into the developmental effort of our continent.

The Commission in turn will then empower us to finalise the structures of the AU as a whole, such as the setting up of the agreed upon specialized technical committees that will be seized with the tasks of the political, security, social, economic and development needs of the African Union.

Honourable Minister and delegates,

The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) is critical to the evolution of common shared values on our continent and will connect the African electorate directly with the work of the AU. We should not and cannot postpone this urgent task any longer.

The AU must pay urgent attention to the integration of the continent. The political and economic integration of the continent is no longer an option but is an imperative. Our populations collectively form a huge market, but individually we are tiny insignificant markets. If we develop together in an integrated fashion we will become significant, both politically and economically.

We need the reorganisation of the Regional Economic Communities, transforming them into the vibrant backbone of the AU to implement the delicate socio-economic development of the continent.

Claiming the right to determine our own future must also mean developing the capacity to deal with our own problems, especially in so far as the resolution of African conflicts are concerned. In this regard, the operationalisation of the Peace and Security Council is imperative; we must ensure that this Protocol enters into force. Therefore, ratification is paramount together with the development of the Common Defence and Security Policy, which shall provide the guidelines that determine the actions of the Peace and Security Council. In light of the problems that confront us, we must conclude this work as soon as possible.

Angola, DRC, Burundi, Comoros and Sierra Leone are all well on their way to peace. The Sudan and Cote d'Ivoire have made some progress, whilst Liberia and the Central Africa Republic remain a challenge.

In applauding all those who have been involved in these peace-seeking processes I call upon us to intensify our efforts to seek African solutions to African problems.

The effective functioning of the African Union is dependent on the financial commitment we as member states make to the organisation. I believe that excellent work has been done on the development of a new Scale of Assessment, which will assists us in meeting our financial obligations to the African Union. It is incumbent on all of us to ensure the financial viability of the African Union. In order to facilitate cross-subsidisation we must seek to act in a spirit of solidarity amongst ourselves, facilitating cross-subsidisation. This is the African way and a reflection of genuine partnership amongst the people of Africa.

As mandated, the Chair has linked with the Diaspora under Caricom and just returned from their summit in Jamaica.

On your behalf, we also attended the Brazil-Africa Forum hosted by the Brazilian Department of Foreign Affairs and African Ambassadors accredited to Brazil. The Forum was a resounding success and we have agreed to have it regularly alternating between Brazil and Africa - the second largest concentration of Africans in the world is in Brazil, second to Nigeria. We have offered to host the second session of the Forum in RSA in 2004.

The Interim Commission has also done some work on the Diaspora in North America. We have to work together as Africans in the continent and outside for the better life of all Africans in the world.

In addition to the above, the Chair of the AU also attended the ACP meeting in Fiji and the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia to revive the Afro-Asian solidarity and the G8 meeting in Evian. We also participated in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

The UN General Assembly last year held a special day on NEPAD, which was very successful. NEPAD was accepted and endorsed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Further we held an AU/EU Ministerial meeting last year in Ouagadougou. It is with pride that I report to you that in all of these meetings, the AU was received and recognized as an important and relevant organisation.

The Interim Chairperson has reported on other issues and the progress we have made. We have already seen the meeting of at least one Specialised Technical Committee at Ministerial level, namely the meeting of Ministers of Trade, which took place in Mauritius. I believe that we will be seeing in the coming year meetings of all Specialised Technical Meetings. We need to bear this in mind since the Commission will have to supply the support services for these meetings which will lead us in the process to balance the political, security, social, economic and development needs of the AU.

Though we have not yet looked at the establishment of the financial institutions of the AU, I believe that we will be able to take our cue from the relevant Ministers when they meet as Specialised Technical Committee. They will be able to advise on how rapidly these highly technical institutions will need to unfold in order to keep pace with these levels of integration of the AU.

We are also on the verge of establishing the African Court of Justice, which will be able to assist us in all legal matters. I would like to thank the experts and judges, as well as Ministers of Justice who have worked so diligently on this matter.

The Economic Social and Cultural Council, ECOSOCC, has also met and has made excellent progress in the development of its own statutes. The role that civil society will be playing in the AU should not be disregarded, including the resources it will be able to mobilise on behalf of the AU, the opinions and thoughts it may want to share with us in order to assist in the unfolding of African unity.

I can say that the AU has appropriately been introduced and accepted by the rest of the world. They are now watching whether we are able to nurture it and let it grow properly. The AU has been reconnected to the family of the world as in the words of Ben Okri:

"It is only when the diverse peoples of the earth meet and learn from and love one another that we can begin to get an inkling of this awesome picture. Call it the picture of divinity, or humanity if you want, but like the magic powder that Africans sometime allude to, this great jigsaw has been distributed amongst all of us; and one aspect of our destiny on this earth may be to discover something of that grand image or music of our collective souls, of immense possibilities, our infinite riches.

No one person or people have the final road of the great keyboard or exclusive possession of this jigsaw of humanity. Only together, as one people of this earth, facing our common predicament and redeeming love, can we make use of this universal gift, this map of our earthly journey and glory."

(Ben Okri, Infinite Riches)

Next year Haiti, the first African republic, celebrates its 200th year of independence and liberation. Surely this remarkable feat of African slave liberation from the powerful Napoleon of that time must inspire us today to free ourselves from poverty and underdevelopment. Next year, the youngest African Republic, South Africa, will celebrate ten years of freedom and democracy.

Cette ann

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