President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday that there is a huge task at hand to build a better life for all the people of Africa as the continent gears up to celebrate Africa Day on Tuesday.

In his weekly newsletter to the nation Ramaphosa said Africans had become accustomed to seeing images such as the one seen last week of a young boy adrift off the coast of the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.

According to relief organisations more than 20 000 people have lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean since 2014.

“As we observe Africa Day tomorrow, these tragic stories remind us of the huge task we have to build a better life for all the people of Africa. While we celebrate the progress we have made towards building a peaceful and prosperous continent, events in faraway North Africa show that we still have a long way to go,” Ramaphosa said.

He said life was difficult for millions of people in Africa and that limited opportunities lead to people risking their lives by crossing the sea in pursuit of a better future.    

He added that the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic had made people already suffering from the effects of conflict, under-development and poverty even more vulnerable.

African economies had been severely damaged and growth prospects were greatly diminished, he pointed out, warning that many of the continent’s developmental gains may be reversed as the fight against the pandemic takes precedence over other national priorities such as poverty eradication.   

He noted that while low-income countries were especially vulnerable, middle income countries, such as South Africa, had also been severely hit.

Ramaphosa shared that to support the continent’s economic recovery, African governments have been working through the African Union (AU) to mobilise significant financing to meet their developmental goals.

Last week, he joined several African leaders at a summit in Paris hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss the financing of African economies post-Covid-19.

At the summit, South Africa reiterated its support for a comprehensive and robust economic stimulus package for Africa to aid the recovery.

Ramaphosa said this, however, should not be a substitute for official development aid.

Financial institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) offered to support low- and middle-income countries and called for further measures to support vulnerable countries.

This would include an allocation by the IMF of Special Drawing Rights, where on the basis of membership quotas, around $33-billion would be released to increase the reserves of African countries.

However, African leaders have argued that $33-billion will not be enough for the challenges across the continent.

As the more developed economies are set to receive much of the $650-billion of Special Drawing Rights, Ramaphosa said African leaders believe that 25%, or $162.5-billion, should be made available to African countries.

Other measures would include increased concessional financing by international institutions and development agencies, and additional measures led by the G20 countries to provide African countries with debt relief.

“In what was described as a New Deal for Africa, leaders and international organisations recognised that we share a collective responsibility to implement financial relief measures for African countries in distress,” he said.

Covid-19 has shown the importance of collaboration between African countries and international partners, he said, adding that gains as a continent have come about through Africa’s own capabilities and through working with the international community.

Ramaphosa said African countries wanted to help themselves and not be told what was good for them.

“The principle of ‘nothing about us without us’ should be applied. It is important that we affirm our sovereignty as free and independent States capable of determining the destiny of our continent,” he affirmed.