It is too early to use Zimbabwe as a test case for the peer review mechanism proposed in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano said on Wednesday.
The political and economic problems in Zimbabwe had come before the whole concept of Nepad had been completed, understood by all, and put into practice, he told delegates at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Africa Economic Summit in Durban.
Referring to the southern African country, Chissano said: ”Nepad is like a hut which we are building in our farm in order to get shelter against the rain, it happens that while we are still building the shelter the rains come in, and we get wet.
”And, it will be like that until the shelter is finished. When the shelter is finished we will no longer get wet.”
More than 700 delegates from 48 countries have assembled in the South African east-coast city to exchange ideas on the implementation of Nepad, the economic recovery plan for the continent.
Nepad proposes a system of peer review and possible sanctions for countries that fail to adhere to principles of good governance and democracy.
Chissano said it was not right to doubt Africa’s commitment to peer review while there was still no clear mechanism in place.
”It does not mean that we are not doing anything now, we have started doing something, because ours (peer review) is more a work to prevent conflict, internal or inter-state conflict.
”The preventative measures are more important for us than all the other measures.”
Other southern African countries were working to help resolve Zimbabwe’s problems.
”The region is always there to try to bring calm and avoid the deterioration of the conflict, we don’t want war in Zimbabwe because it will affect the whole region,” he said.
South African Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin said peer review in Africa was an exciting development.
It aimed to introduce codes of practice and sanctions that would encourage governments to perform well, and could be in place in less than a year.
The Nepad Secretariat hoped African leaders would accept it in principle at the African Union summit next month.
”It is something that is not far away, we are about a year away to the day of the first peer review of countries and that is very exciting,” he said.
Reporting back to delegates on an earlier workshop on the issue, Goldman Sachs Europe vice chairman Guillermo de la Dehesa said delegates at that meeting had identified a set of criteria for successful peer review.
This included the setting up of an independent African Court of Justice to take decisions and introduce sanctions, and an early warning system to help prevent conflict, he said.
Earlier Zimbabwean Finance Minister Simba Makoni told reporters that his country was eligible to participate in Nepad.
He said Zimbabwe would not be the ”makers or breakers” of Nepad.
”You’re giving us too much importance if you say this,” said Makoni.
He said Zimbabwe would submit itself to the peer review process once the criteria had been set up. – Sapa