God bless Africa!
Mmegi Editor | Tuesday January 31, 2017 15:59
It is our sincere hope that Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi will have been voted into the seat, as she represents the most credible opportunity for change in the African Union (AU).
Ours is a continent of deep contrasts. Africa boasts unparalleled natural resources, breathtaking vistas and endless natural wonders. It also has the shame of having the worst poverty, disease and bad governance. Despots thrive on this continent and citizens are generally powerless to resist or have come to view authoritarian rule as normal or acceptable. Africa has few true friends and its history is littered with traumatic engagements with the rest of the world, from the Scramble for Africa, to the entry of the Oriental giants.
Citizens, crushed by all sides by poverty, disease and dictatorships, put out their hands for assistance and the AU, which should be their saviour, keeps its hands in its pockets. Many of the continent’s young have been disillusioned and cynical, viewing a flight to Europe or the US as the sole chance of a better life.
The AU, like many of the regional economic and political blocs, continues the misery for Africans, by defending despots and cherry-picking its interventions. We expect that the AU should strengthen regional blocs such as SADC and support their programmes in the areas of social development, peace and democracy.
The AU should be forcefully leading the democratisation of Africa, but alas, the fact that some of the continent’s known dictators have chaired the organisation, including Robert Mugabe, who took the lead at the age of 90. The AU’s weakness, replicated by SADC, is a reluctance by members to critique and take interventions towards upholding democracy, a necessary precursor to social development, peace and prosperity.
Like SADC, the AU has largely intervened when invited to do so by governing parties and the intervention has been to uphold those governments, even in cases where the complaints of opposing parties warrant investigation.
At present, the AU Constitutive Act, only permits uninvited military intervention to prevent war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. In 2003 the AU issued a Protocol on Amendments to the Constitutive Act, which would extend the terms of Article 4 (h) to allow military intervention also to counter a “serious threat to legitimate order”.
To date, the protocol has not yet come into force because two-thirds of AU members have not yet ratified it. It is doubtful it will ever be ratified, as doing so would spell trouble for many despots hiding in open sight on the continent.
For a continent so richly endowed with natural resources, so blessed with a young, energy and innovative population, Africa’s leaders are dropping the ball and dribbling away its posterity. Mayi buye IAfrika! God Bless Africa!
Today’s thought
“As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.”
- Nelson Mandela