Nepad dominated the president’s budget vote debate in the National Assembly on Tuesday ahead of a crucial G8 summit, but not all political parties were convinced of the ambitious regeneration plan’s success.
President Thabo Mbeki said African leaders would not be seeking a subservient and junior role, but a genuine partnership when they meet the G8 industrialised nations later this month.
”We are certain that this engagement will produce positive results,” he said, introducing the debate in Parliament on the day he turned 60.
African heads of state — including Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo — are to meet leaders of the world’s richest nations in Kananaskis, Canada on June 27 and 28.
They are hoping to win the G8’s backing for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.
Nepad hopes to generate billions of US dollars in investment, aid and trade from the developed world, and commits African states to good governance and democracy.
Mbeki said he was encouraged that major international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had expressed their support for the recovery plan, and arrangements were being made to meet those NGOs during the visit to Canada.
Collaboration between and among African countries and businesses was central to the success of Nepad, he said.
But this did not mean Africa did not value partnerships with developed countries.
”The fact of the matter is that these countries have large volumes of capital that we need for the renaissance of our continent.
”It is in this context that next week we will continue our engagements with the G8 countries,” Mbeki said.
Addressing a recent World Economic Forum summit in Durban, the President said African leaders would want answers from the G8 at the Canada meeting on the issues of debt reduction and market access.
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said that while Nepad as a theory was excellent, its principles had failed in practice.
The South African government’s credibility on the plan had failed at its first test: Zimbabwe.
Mbeki had shown solidarity with Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, and had accepted an election that was ”patently neither free or fair”.
The South African president had also not acted against other African leaders — including Bakili Muluzi of Malawi and Namibia’s Sam Nujoma –who sought to unconstitutionally extend their stay in power, he said.
”The point is that Nepad will simply never get off the ground unless African governments abide by acceptable global standards of democratic behaviour.
”And those standards will not be met unless our government, together with others, takes the concept of ‘peer review’ seriously,” Leon said.
Nepad proposes a system of peer review and possible sanctions for countries that fail to adhere to principles of good governance and democracy.
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said too much emphasis had been focused on the G8 industrialised countries.
”This northward leaning leaves the impression this is another begging bowl scenario.”
Africa had inherited an economic order that relied overly on the core economies of the North, and the engagement of the industrialised world in Nepad was driven by self-interest, not philanthropy.
”We should look inwards and break the industrial imperial stranglehold, which carved us into parallel spheres of influence.”
There was a perception that the authors of Nepad were being prescribed to by the developed world to conform to their narrow definitions of what constituted democracy and good governance, he said.
The Freedom Front, however, was more optimistic about the regeneration plan’s impact for the continent.
Some had feared that, after September 11, Africa’s significance would have been ”wiped off the radar screen” of mainstream international affairs, FF leader Pieter Mulder said.
”Thanks to President (Thabo) Mbeki and Nepad, that has not happened.”
However, the consequences would be felt far beyond Africa should the developed world fail to respond positively to the plan, or if the continent’s leaders once again did not follow through on their promises, he said.
In his farewell address in the National Assembly, the New National Party’s Marthinus van Schalkwyk said analysts would in future say that Nepad was to Africa what the New Deal was to America, and the Marshall Plan was to Europe.
”In some senses, Nepad is our continental Gear,” he said, referring to South Africa’s growth employment and redistribution strategy.
Van Schalkwyk is to be inaugurated as Western Cape premier on Friday. – Sapa