Chairperson, Minister, Speaker and colleagues, since Africa's independence from colonial rule, various initiatives have been explored, aimed at trying to forge closer continental co-operation for the purposes of African unity. Such calls are not new in Africa, on the contrary, the very formation of the Organisation of African Unity saw the emergence of two schools of thought which differed on the exact path that Africa should take towards her eventual unity.
The current debate regarding the creation of an African Union government must therefore be seen within such a historical context whereby there are different visions and ideals in Africa on how best to strengthen and forge greater continental co-operation, integration and unity.
Given the significance of this matter, the African Union Summit of Heads of States to be held in Accra in Ghana, will only have this issue on its agenda in July 2007. The July 2007 summit is to be preceded by different forums and meetings aimed at allowing different stakeholders to engage in discussions regarding this idea.
One of such meetings is the recently concluded gathering of the AU Ministers of foreign affairs held in Durban, South Africa, from 8 to 9 May 2007. The report released at the end of this meeting suggests that the issue of the African Union government was thoroughly debated during the meeting. The report noted that during the deliberation the delegates raised a number of issues, concerns and suggestions in paving the way for the African Union government. It was agreed that there was a collective commitment to political and economic integration of the continent. Beyond this, there was divergence on how this should be achieved.
The Minister has already spoken about the European Union, so I won't go into that. The African Union Commission released the framework document in 2005, which outlined the set of principle guidelines for the creation of the African Union government. Among other things, the framework document makes the following proposals:
The Union Government will be a political transitory arrangement towards the United States of Africa; and that the union government shall consist of a more focused assembly and an executive council and commission.
The above structures will be supported by an effective permanent representatives' committee and result-oriented, specialised technical committees. The framework document for an African Union government also states that the creation of such a government should derive its strength from Africa's shared values, common interests and constraints.
These shared constraints entail, for instance, the fact that Africa continues to be overdependent on the external world for its economic development and that the continent continues to suffer due to the underexploitation of its enormous development potentials at national, regional and continental levels. However, it is worth mentioning that this observation is not new and that in fact efforts by the New Partnership for Africa's Development, Nepad, are meant to specifically address these and other challenges.
The commission of the African Union government would share executive functions together with the assembly and the executive council. This, it is observed, would be a departure from the current arrangement whereby the commission functions as secretariat. The framework document also calls for the review of the Pan-African Parliament in the context of article 25 of the protocol of the Pan-African Parliament. It also calls for provisions to be made for the direct elections of the Pan-African Parliament MPs through a proportional representation system. That of course has to be debated. How does that happen? All of the above proposals would require some revision of the Constitutive Act of the African Union. In context of the proposed African Union government, one of the key amendments to the Constitutive Act would be the inclusion of the principle of a community domain through which members of the union will agree to delegate, authority partially or totally, to a continental body. The question that we need to ask is: To what extent are African states ready and willing to even partially relinquish their state sovereignty?
The question of sovereignty is complex, especially in Africa where states do not share similar levels of economic and political independence; where there are small and strong states operating side by side. The question of sovereignty must therefore be approached with outmost care and it may be too ambitious a goal to expect that in a short space of time, all African states will be willing to give up their sovereignty.
The creation of a union government also has implications for the continental financial institutions such as the proposed African Central Bank and the African Monetary Fund. For instance, it is envisaged that the African Central Bank would play a role in ensuring that there is greater co- operation among African states in the sphere of monetary policy.
The Framework Document proposes that a United States of Africa should be created by the year 2015, following a three-phased road map each lasting for three years. That, of course, is up for debate. As far as the challenges with the proposed African Union government are concerned, one of the questions that should be asked concerns the timeframes that have been outlined for the creation of a United States of Africa. That is, Parliamentarians should be able to evaluate whether or not 2015 is a realistic timeframe for the successful conclusion of such a project?
The above question must have as its background the fact that in terns of the Lagos Plan of Action the process for the creation of an African economic community was to take 34 years. Thus the question becomes, what is it about the current sociopolitical and economic conditions in Africa that warrants a belief that the United States of Africa could be created in such a short space of time? This is one of the important questions, because the African leadership has the responsibility to ensure that past mistakes are not repeated, where unrealistic plans and timeframes are outlined without the necessary machinery to ensure their realisation.
Furthermore, parliamentarians and other African stakeholders should be able to reflect on whether the AU has been able to achieve the objectives for which it was created. The AU has not concluded a decade since it replaced the OAU as a continental body. Thus, the question should be: Are those pushing for the replacement of the Union government convinced that enough work has been done to meet the objectives of the African Union and therefore warrants the transformation into an African Union government?
Is there a study that has been conducted that thoroughly informs the African people about the strides or failures therefore, by the AU to achieve its tasks? It appears that it would defeat the purpose to transform the AU without such a study being done and without providing an opportunity for a third examination of the progress by the AU.
One of the foreign policy priorities in South African government is the consolidation of the African agenda. Amongst other things, one of the key objectives of this priority is to strengthen the AU, its relevant organs as well as specialised technical committees. From the point of view of the South African government, more work is still required to ensure that the African Union functions effectively. Therefore, it may well be that the AU still requires strengthening before Africa decides to forge co-operation by creating an African Union government.
I am going to pass on to the decisions taken by the Pan-African Parliament. The Pan-African Parliament sent the recommendations to the African Union, and they are as follows: the first is that the transformation of the Pan- African Parliament into a legislative organ be accelerated to enable it to contribute to the integration of the continent, through among other things, the harmonisation of policies, laws and regulations relating to the various issues of development.
The second is that the evolution towards the Union government should take into account modern global forces and pressures, and that the AU sets a realistic calendar in order to facilitate the evolution of the AU towards the creation of the union government. Third, is that as a prerequisite to setting up a union government, the AU redouble its efforts in order to accelerate the establishment and the strengthening of existing institutions and those which are in the process of being created.
The fourth is that the present process of rationalising and harmonising the AU institutions and regional economic communities which are the actual building blocks, as well as their policy programmes and projects be accelerated and finalised following a realistic calendar. The fifth is that African political leaders show their political will to move towards the union government by paying the respective country's contributions to AU's budget and subsequently to the union government.
The sixth is that the African Union clarifies the type of union government it has in mind. The Pan-African Parliament for its party, is in favour of a federal type of union. The seventh is that the nomenclature "United States of Africa", with the English acronym of USA, be replaced by another acronym which better reflects the history of the continent.
Eighth, the AU takes all the necessary steps to encourage and promote the full participation of peoples of Africa in the debate and process towards the creation of a union government. Ninth, the Nepad, APRM and other similar specialised institutions should be incorporated as specialised technical institutions of the future union government with appropriate levels of autonomy of powers and resources.
I want to very quickly come to the meeting held in Addis Ababa by civil society, trade unions, some legislatures, the military and some women's movements. The meeting articulated the commitment to the unity and the development of Africa. The delegation agreed that efforts towards integration should be informed by the basic development needs of the people of Africa within a peaceful and stable environment.
It expressed support for the decision to order the AU and its institution and organs. Furthermore, it was argued that greater efforts should be made to harmonise continental policy frameworks, particularly within the judiciary and economic domains. Furthermore, greater convergence in government framework should be encouraged and developed among African states through greater support of the APRM framework. Lastly, with the few minutes left, I want to put in that one of the things that was said was that to consolidate continental unity, the people of Africa must be included in the debate in the union government. We should broaden the participation of the debate to civil society and the decision should be taken by the people of Africa. I thank you. [Applause.]