31 Jan 2018

Vice President, Mr Mokwgeetsi Masisi has said the clear mission and purpose of the 30th African Union (AU) Heads of State and Government summit, which was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia hinged around the issues that have been a decision of the 2015 South Africa summit.

Mr Masisi, who returned on January 30, said in an interview that the South Africa summit spoke of the commitment by African leaders to ensure that they were self-sufficient in the funding of the organisation.

“That was followed by further decision to embellish and complete the 2015 decision in 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda by the majority even though Botswana and few others were concerned,” he said.

Mr Masisi said a decision was taken after considering a number of options to levy eligible imports of countries up to 0.2 per-cent to raise the core financing of the African Union, including its programme of action, which were contained in the African Union plan of action agenda.

He however said in 2017 the summit further deliberated on the 0.2 per-cent and further refined what the eligible imports might be and the options that could be taken.

“We were among the countries that objected to the decision, particularly our concern hinged around a necessity to focus a lot more on enhancing internal efficiency of the organisation and ensuring there is a value for money, accountability and measure of equity in the determination of contributions by member states,” he said.

He explained that at the summit, they considered not just 0.2 per-cent, but also looked at an array of reforms that were requested to be undertaken by a panel that was led by President of Rwanda, Mr Paul Kagame. He said Mr Kagame gave them a comprehensive report, having extensively worked hard with other leaders in a troika format as well as a panel of experts on modalities of reforming the organisation.

The SADC group, he said raised a number of concerns with respect to the reforms and their areas of concern was mainly to do with governance and ensuring that they were compliant with their constitute of act. “It is important to note that the SADC group at all-time had been supportive in spirit and other wise of determination to reform, that was made clear and we were represented in this opinion by South Africa President, Mr Jacob Zuma,” he said.
Meanwhile, Minister of  International Relations and Cooperation, Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi was elected to chair a new reforms sub-committee.

Mr Paul Kagame was elected as the chair of the African Union taking over from President of Guinea, Mr Alpha Cone.
Other members elected for the AU bureau were first chair, Mr Faiz El Saraj, President of the Presidential Council of Libya (North Africa). South Africa President, Mr Jacob Zuma was elected as second vice president; Mr Denis Sassou Nguesso, President of Congo is the third vice president while Guinea President, Mr Alpha Conde is the fourth Vice President. Ends