Lessons from AU elections

Mmegi Editor | Thursday July 21, 2016 08:51

However, she returned home with 23 votes to celebrate, far below the 35 required to get the position.

The elections were subsequently postponed to January.  For the next six months, our Foreign Affairs minister might have to continue campaigning for the position and hope that no strong contender lurks in the background.

We commend Venson-Moitoi for making this bold step to contest for the highest position at Africa’s highest institution.  However, our failure to secure this position may also be indicative that our continental brethrens have lost faith in us, the once ‘Africa’s shining beacon of democracy’.   The simple reason is that many of them have never met our number one citizen in person, but have only heard or read about him dismissing AU resolutions and proceedings. Since assuming power in 2008, President Ian Khama has never attended any AU Summit or UN General Assembly. When opposition legislators questioned the gesture they were told by the ruling party that he was too busy.  Even Venson-Moitoi at some point vehemently defended the President for not attending international meetings, because she “had to do it”. The results are a clear indication that the presence of a Head of State, and not his deputy, at these gatherings, is very important and we should take a leaf from the Rwanda elections.It is therefore important for the next government to repair this massive damage that Khama has done to the international relations and image of this country in order to open more opportunities for Batswana in the global village. The AU, on the other hand, should reform its election procedures for the senior positions by making some of them rotational based on regional blocs to foster unity in the continent.

For instance, the chairperson could be from SADC, then later from The Maghreb, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Great Lakes or East Africa. A bloc can present at least five candidates from whom the Summit shall conduct an election for the best candidate. This will definitely promote transparency and ensure that the best candidate gets the job.  The status quo does not promote unity in that Dlamini-Zuma was from the SADC, and a candidate seeking to succeed her – Venson-Moitoi is also from the SADC. Continuing along this route will not promote unity in the continent that has for centuries struggled with all sorts of challenges from slavery, colonialism, tribalism, cross boundary wars, civil wars, genocides, disease, corruption, religious differences and distrust of each other, among others. It is the AU that can unite this continent and the best way to achieve this is by ensuring equitable distribution of power across the continent.

 

Today’s thought 

“Our American democracy is not perfect.  We’ve worked for many years but one thing we do is we continually re-examine to figure out how can we make our democracy better”. 

– Barack Obama