SA faces a host of challenges as it chairs AU

President Cyril Ramaphosa and International Relations and Co-operation Minister Naledi Pandor spelt out the tough domestic and diplomatic challenges South Africa faces when they addressed South Africa’s ambassadors to other African countries in Pretoria on Tuesday 28 January. The diplomats were gathered to consider how South Africa should use the African Union (AU) chair to advance Africa and South Africa’s interests.

Ramaphosa told them South Africa’s priorities as AU chair would be implementing the ambitious African Continental Free Trade Agreement  (AfCFTA) which comes into effect on July 1; resolving African conflicts especially in Libya and South Sudan; empowering African women and preventing violence against them; and improving African governance.

He rebuked outside powers for meddling in Africa’s conflicts such as Libya and South Sudan, while Pandor acknowledged – apparently for the first time by such a senior government official – the threat posed to southern Africa by the growing presence of Islamic State in northern Mozambique. 

South Africa will take over the rotating AU chair from Egypt at the AU summit in Addis Ababa on 9 and 10 February. Ramaphosa noted that South Africa would also take the chairs of other AU bodies: the African Peer Review Mechanism – the APRM, which monitors the political, economic, corporate and social governance of member African countries; and the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change. And, Pandor noted, South Africa was already in its second and last year as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. 

South Africa would be holding all these positions at a time of “tectonic shifts in global affairs” with growing challenges to multilateralism as the global community increasingly focused on self-preservation, unilateralism and “war-baiting” rather than the good of all.

Many of South Africa’s friends regarded it as a “powerful progressive alternative able to articulate the concerns and interest of the marginalised and vulnerable while upholding the agreed progressive universal principles of the UN Charter.

“All these imposing international challenges and responsibilities will exact a toll on South Africa’s leadership capacity, and indeed capabilities at a time when we face a myriad of country challenges.

“It is no exaggeration to say politically, economically and on the governance front, South Africa is probably facing the sternest test since the dawn of the democratic dispensation in April 1994.

“We are fighting off the possibility of a credit rating downgrade but also, we have the duty to revive a sluggish economy even as we push back a high unemployment rate in the face of continued private-sector job shedding.

“A credit rating downgrade would compound matters for us by further weakening our capacity to address our structural socio-economic imbalances, addressing social inequality and creating conditions that nurture social cohesion, nation-building and a democratic citizenship,” she said, stressing that South Africa had to avoid a downgrade at all costs. 

“Our electricity supply challenges, as well as the need to repair the state-owned enterprises [SOEs] and restore investor confidence in our country’s economy, are pressing matters for which continued engagement by government and the president, in particular, is a top priority.  Much is being done through the leadership of our president and government, but much more hard work lies ahead for all of us.” 

South Africa was also hosting thousands of African migrants “often violently uprooted from their home countries by civil strife, war, poverty and political or ethnic persecution.

“The intermittent attacks on foreign nationals who are often accused of social crime and ‘stealing South African jobs’ has become par for the course, earning our country the criticism of several countries in Africa and some civil society organisations.

“That said, I have no doubt in my mind that we are equal to the task at hand. We have, over the last 25 years of democracy, accumulated the necessary experience to execute our responsibilities effectively.”

Ramaphosa said South Africa’s highest priority as AU chair would be deepening Africa’s economic integration, mainly by implementing the AfCFTA. This would require detailed work, extensive consultation and complex negotiations to reach agreement on issues such as tariff lines, rules of origin, custom controls, trade in services, competition and intellectual property protection.

“We will also need to address issues like the ease of doing business in different African countries,” he said, adding that South Africa was also committed to making it easier for others to do business here.

He noted that South Africa would chair the AU towards the end of the  AU’s aspiration of “silencing the guns by 2020”. 

“Violent conflict continues to hamper our efforts to achieve continental peace development,” said Ramaphosa.

Pretoria would focus especially on two intractable conflicts on the continent – in Libya and South Sudan – where South Africa was already actively involved in seeking solutions.

“In South Sudan, we are engaged both bilaterally and multilaterally, in particular as chair of the High-Level Ad Hoc Committee on South Sudan, known as the C5.

“South Africa is a member of the AU High-Level Committee on Libya.”

Ramaphosa said a number of these conflicts needed the intervention of external countries but added that some of these interventions, at least those in Libya and South Sudan “seem to be driven by ulterior motives”.

Pandor underscored his point, regretting the “increased military presence on the continent of countries such as France, USA, China, Russia and Turkey”.

She also acknowledged – apparently for the first time by the South African government, publicly – the growing threat of jihadism in southern Africa. 

“Attacks by militants affiliated with the Islamic State and Daesh in the northern Mozambique province of Cabo Delgado have raised concerns about an IS presence in new territories where it has drawn allegiance from local militant groups.

“We should be worried, given that the attacks on Mozambique point up the presence of IS in the SADC region. History has shown that poorer regions are most vulnerable to violent external incursions as material incentives are easily disbursed to attract young people to these negative activities.”

Ramaphosa said another pillar of South Africa’s agenda as AU chair would be the empowerment of women, “with a specific emphasis on promoting financial and economic inclusion and combating gender-based violence. 

“We must look beyond ‘micro-finance solutions’ to financing that will grow businesses of women.”

South Africa would mobilise African countries to focus on the prevention of violence against women and girls. Ramaphosa said that in 2009 only 28% of Sub-Saharan African countries had laws on domestic violence and this had increased to 55% by 2018. But this meant that nearly half of the countries still did not have laws that specifically address the most prevalent form of violence against women. DM