The much awaited African Peer Review Mechanism country review report was not tabled to African leaders at the 6th Summit of the APRM as expected, but was instead postponed to July.

“The heads of State did not table South Africa's report largely because it is still a draft and incomplete,” the APRM Governing Council's chairperson, Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said.

She explained that the sector wide report on South Africa's civil society and government organs would be tabled in July, adding that the exact dates would be available at a later stage.

The 6th APRM Summit takes place alongside the 8th African Union Heads of State and Government Summit in the Ethiopian capital. A statement from the minister's department explained that in accordance with the “Base Documents” of the African Peer Review Mechanism, the Heads of State and Heads of Government of the African Peer Review Forum did not table nor discuss the draft Country Review Report on South Africa on Sunday. “The modalities contained in the 'Base Documents' are very explicit - the Heads of State are to only receive and discuss the final reports of the APR Panel,” the Department said.

The African leaders noted that the Report on South Africa was a draft that still contained factual errors, and did not include the most recent comprehensive South African Programme of Action, which had been sent to the panel as agreed upon in the second week of January 2007. It was decided that the South African Report along with the review reports of Algeria and Nigeria will be tabled and discussed during the next African Union Heads of State Summit in July 2007.

The African presidents were to have reviewed the report on all of South Africa's civil society and government sectors, at the session, before its publication in South Africa. "In all instances of the three reports already presented, they were final reports hence there is no reason for consideration of the draft report," Fraser-Moleketi said, referring to the completed reports of Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda.

The Minister said the fact that the draft report did not include the latest Programme of Action, had largely contributed to the Heads of States' decision not to discuss the report. She dispelled speculations that the South African government was not happy about the content of the report. Last year, the Head of the APRM Country Review Mission for South Africa, Professor Adebayo Adedeji visited South Africa and praised the manner in which the country's various sectors had handled the APRM process.

The APRM is a voluntary self-monitoring tool agreed upon by the member states of the AU and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad).

It is aimed at encouraging Africans to reflect on their national programmes and challenges and find ways of working together to achieve political stability, high economic growth, good governance and sustainable development.

At the opening of the APRM summit on Saturday, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo noted that some common challenges were found in the three countries that had been reviewed.

He said Ghana, Rwanda and Kenya were faced with similar challenges regarding capacity constraints, land distribution, population growth and gender disparities.

President Obasanjo however singled out Rwanda, a country from which other member states could learn about gender mainstreaming.

He emphasised that the APRM was not a score-card of governments but a review of the whole country including structures such as the judiciary, the legislature and corporate governance amongst others.

South Africa is one of 24 countries on the continent that have signed up for the APRM - BuaNews