Chair, Madam Speaker, Minister, the present integration of African states resembles the EU rather than the United States of America, but is not much different from the secret Accra Agreement in its goals of eliminating tariff barriers, forming one customs union, the creation of a single African bank and a single currency.
It may be useful in this debate to look at some perceptions with regard to the impact of the EU on its member states. These include centralisation of power in Brussels, loss of sovereignty and interference in decision-making. For example, 80% of German legislation since 1998 has its origin in Brussels directives.
With no EU community of people to give it a democratic legitimacy, EU control is seen as an assault on nation states and the national democracies that underpin them. Rampant corruption has been acknowledged by EU auditors and on the EU's own figures, the single market costs three times as much as the benefits.
It is estimated that EU membership cost the UK between 15 billion and 25 billion each year, or 1 000 per household. That would be around R1 000 per month here in South Africa. The UK's membership has been described as an economic and social disaster.
A Zimbabwean delegate at a public seminar on Africa Day was reported as saying that he was attracted to the optimism of continental integration and that the idea of a united states of Africa was good. Very likely, from the perspective of some failed states, the benefits will look good, but what are the implications for South Africa?
The fact that this debate, up till now, has taken place exclusively at the level of heads of state and excludes the people of Africa is, as we have said, of great concern for the ACDP. It is the people of Africa and indeed South Africans who should be applying their minds to this concept as it is the people who stand to gain or lose the most. [Time expired.]