Much progress is also being made with the establishment of an African Standby Force, under the auspices of the African Union, he said during debate on his department's budget in the National Assembly.
Lekota said although the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War promised peace, the world situation had instead become increasingly uncertain and more threatening.
This was true for Africa too. Inevitably, the war on terror spilled into the African continent, which had now become one of the theatres of international terrorism, as witnessed by the recent attack in Morocco.
"This consequence has imposed fresh obligations on African countries --singly, regionally, and continentally -- to equip themselves to respond to all of these threats in a world which is becoming less secure as a result of unilateral actions by the great powers," he said.
"The situation today does not allow us to use the concept of a peace dividend either in defence planning or in the defence budget.
"The countries in our region and on our continent face the same challenges. We therefore need to pool our resources.
"To be effective, we need to deal with these problems collectively, and regional collectives like the SADC become more important.
"It is in this context that we are looking at a collective approach to defence on the continent under the auspices of the African Union, through the development of common doctrine and the establishment of an African Standby Force."
It was agreed within the AU that a "common defence policy" was not a single policy for all of Africa, but a policy on how to collectively respond to threats.
Lekota said each country had to look at its doctrine and security evaluation, its assets, and what it could contribute to the common good in keeping with its resources.
The regional blocks, such as SADC, would then pull together to form a continental body.
As the biggest economy in the region, South Africa, would always have to carry more responsibilities.
SADC was now in the last stages of finalising its mutual defence pact, which had been a complex process, and he was optimistic the pact would be signed in August.
The establishment of an AU standby force was at an advanced stage of discussion, and full consensus and agreement had been reached on a range of matters.
These included doctrine and posture; shifts in the nature of peacekeeping operations; inter-operability of forces; common standards of training, equipment and logistics; standard procurement regimes for commonly identified equipment needs; and the establishment of command structures.
A detailed report was expected at the next meeting of the African Chiefs of Staff in 2004, Lekota said - Sapa
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