Date: 09/05/2007

Source: KwaZulu Natal Provincial Government

Title: Ndebele: Dinner for African Union Ministers

Remarks by KwaZulu-Natal Premier Mr Sibusiso Ndebele at the dinner hosted by the Government of KwaZulu-Natal for African Union (AU) Ministers, Durban

His Excellency, Professor Alpha-Ouma Konare
Chairperson of the AU Commission, His Excellency Mr. Nana-Akufo Addo
Chairperson of the Executive Council of the AU His Excellency, Mr Patrick Mazimhaka
Deputy Chair of the AU Commission Her Excellency, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma: Minister of Foreign Affairs
Foreign Ministers of the AU
Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad
Members of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Provincial Executive Council
Ladies and gentlemen

When the Heads of State and Government of the Organisation of African Unity issued a Declaration in 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union, it was with a view to accelerating the process of integrating Africa. This was so we could play our rightful role in the global economy while at the same time addressing the challenges posed by the reality of globalisation.

The adoption of the Constitutive Act of the African Union in Rome seven years ago and the adoption of the New Partnership for Africa's Development in 2001 remain among the highlights on the road towards a truly free Africa. We are pleased as the people of KwaZulu-Natal that you have yet again chosen our province as the place in which you will take decisive steps in the long journey that will see African countries take their place among the nations and regional blocks of the world.

This is because the launch of the AU in 2002 and the convening of the 1st Assembly of the Heads of States of the African Union took place right here in Durban. The Debate on the Political and Economic Integration of Africa represents one of the most important steps towards the conclusion of the decolonisation process. We are pleased that you are holding this historic great debate yet again in our city. We believe it is important that as we create a new environment for Africa's revival we must constantly and consciously look back into our past. Each time we look back we will find an Africa whose climate and geography were conducive to the birth of some of the world's earlier civilisations and knowledge systems.

When we look back we will see an Africa that has contributed immensely to the advancement of mathematics, physics and writing systems. Each time we do this, we are reminding ourselves of how it is possible that a continent so great could descend to the levels that we did over the last 100 years, but we must always look back because from the past we can draw inspiration from the obvious reality that our fate is in our hands.

In 1906, Dr Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, an African scholar and one of the founder members of the African National Congress (ANC) waxed lyrical about the Africa we are seeking when he said, "A brighter day is rising upon Africa. Already I seem to see her chains dissolved her desert plain red with harvest, her Abyssinia and her Zululand the seats of science and religion, reflecting the glory of the rising sun from the spires of their churches and universities. Her Congo and her Gambia whitened with commerce, her crowded cities sending forth the hum of business and all her sons employed in advancing the stories of peace, greater and more abiding than the spoils of war."

We seek our place among the nations of the world aware as the African National Congress (ANC) pointed out in its Strategy and Tactics Document of 2002 that our place in the world often relates to the question of the sovereignty of states in a globalising world. "Some lessons have emerged from various experiences about the kind of overt and covert subversion that developing countries can be subjected to. Not least of these are the concrete expression of the clamour for Africa's resources and the power of transnational corporations in global economics and politics. How do we protect the integrity of our democratic state under such conditions?" ANC Strategy and Tactics Document (2002).

We would argue that it is incumbent upon all of Africa to define our re emerging centres of global power such as the European Union, the United States, Japan and China. This we can only do if we recognise and properly analyse the contradictions in and among these centres. We must do so aware of our own differences and challenges, but cognisant of our collective strengths. As one of Africa's greatest commentators once wrote, "One thing so far we have been guilty of is neglecting our cultural men and women." They write and write, but very little is written about them. "We need more books by Africans on Africa"

Another book we need is on the New African. "Let us forget our lamentations for once and tell of our achievements'" - HIE Dhlomo, Ilanga laseNatal, 25 October 1947. We are on the verge of a break up with our colonial past that is of historic proportion. I suspect that while we are carrying out the great debate we may be too close as Africans to see the size of our intervention. We have no doubt that in 100 years' time generations to come will look at this movement towards the political and economic integration of Africa as one of the greatest contributions to the continent in many years.

Never in the history of colonial Africa have the prospects for the political and economic ascendancy of Africa been as bright as they are today. Never in the history of humanity have the odds been stacked so favourably for the African continent to rise from the periphery of the international agenda and to take centre stage in the affairs of the world. We wish you well in your deliberations and the forthcoming AU Summit of Heads of State and Government in Ghana in July. The time for Africa is now. We can rise again, we can run again, we can be drivers of our own destiny yet again.

I thank you.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
9 May 2007