President Cyril Ramaphosa has emphasized the need for good governance in Africa and called for peace and prosperity as South Africa’s term as Chair of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Forum came to an end over the weekend, at the thirty-fifth African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government.

In his weekly newsletter to the public on Monday, Ramaphosa said efforts are underway to encourage all remaining AU member States to join by the end of this decade.

The APRM aims to promote and protect human rights, consolidate democracy and advance good governance and the rule of law among African countries.

Of the AU’s 55 member States, 42 are now members of the APRM.

In the last two months, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi became the most recent countries to join the mechanism.

Ramaphosa says South Africa received favourable reviews for the rule of law, oversight bodies such as Chapter 9 institutions, the advancement of women’s rights, strong refugee protection and an extensive social welfare net.

South Africa was also cited for its strong corporate governance, open budget processes and for the proliferation of corporate social responsibility initiatives.

“We were also praised for the evolution of our electoral system through the introduction of independent candidature for last year’s local government elections,” said Ramaphosa.

On the issue of managing the Covid-19 pandemic, Ramaphosa reports that the APRM Forum commended South Africa for publicising and detecting the Omicron variant despite the risks to the country’s economy.

Ramaphosa said the AU Assembly discussed concerns of rising inequality and unemployment, corruption, incidents of xenophobia and poor service delivery.

It recommended that the government develop a barometer to measure inequality and tools to measure the efficacy of transformative programmes such as broad-based black economic empowerment, employment equity and land reform.

“As a country, we are taking these recommendations on board and exploring areas of alignment between the APRM National Programme of Action and the work of our National Planning Commission. It is greatly encouraging that despite pockets of instability, we have come a long way in consolidating democracy and good governance on the continent, “ he said.

The Africa Governance Report 2021, which South Africa presented to the AU Assembly over the weekend, noted progress in consolidating democracy and moving towards economic integration through the African Continental Free Trade Area.

At the same time, it recommended that leaders take urgent steps to address drivers of instability, such as growing youth unemployment, extremism, mass migration and deepening inequality.