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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
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