African foreign ministers were on Wednesday ready to begin refining the nuts and bolts for the launch of the African Union next week amid revelations that at least 10 states would be unable to vote at the inaugural summit because of debt problems.
Business and civic organisations, which have been meeting on the sidelines, also finalised the input they would submit to African leaders at the launch of the new organisation in Durban.
A special session of the Council of Ministers of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) on Wednesday night concluded the preliminary putting together of recommendations on the establishment of the AU’s four key structures, OAU officials told reporters.
Assistant secretary-general Vijay Markhan said these would be refined during an ordinary three-day session of the council that would be formally opened on Thursday morning.
The council’s proposals would be considered by at least 50 African heads of state, who are expected to start arriving in Durban by Sunday. They will make up the main AU organ, dubbed the Assembly of Heads of State.
Markhan disclosed that about 10 countries would be prohibited from voting at the event because they owed the OAU a total of about $36-million (about R360-million) in membership fees.
”They are at this point under sanctions for being in arrears for more than two years.”
Markhan said the sanctions included barring these states from voting at meetings, and prohibiting their citizens from standing for elections for positions within the organisation.
The AU, Africa’s version of the European Union, will replace the 38-year-old OAU.
Markhan said the extent of the OAU’s arrears had been diminishing significantly since June 1, falling from $42-million to about $36-million since then.
”This is a good sign, and we hope that all our member states will be in a position to honour their financial obligations.”
Markhan said Wednesday’s special session of the council of ministers mostly revolved around the statutes for the AU Commission, which is to replace the OAU secretariat after a transition period.
So far, the session had agreed the body should comprise a president, a vice-president and eight other members.
The Assembly of Heads of State should elect the president and his deputy, with AU foreign ministers electing the eight other commissioners, Markhan said.
African civic leaders earlier in the day tempered their endorsement of the AU by expressing ”critical concerns” over the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad).
In their final submission to the inaugural summit they described the AU as a landmark in the quest for African unity.
It was also hoped that Nepad would succeed in its objective of alleviating poverty and stimulating economic growth on the continent.
”(But) the civil society organisations have raised many critical concerns about the Nepad initiative around its proposed principles and strategies, legitimacy, process and outcomes,” the submission reads.
The document is the culmination of a two-day workshop of more than 200 representatives of about 60 non-government bodies from Africa.
A meeting of more than 200 African business delegates ended in a pledge by the participants to give their full support to the AU and Nepad.
This formed part of a document that was handed to South African Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin after the three-day gathering.
In resolutions to be presented to the AU Assembly of Heads of State, business complimented political leaders for putting in place structures and processes ”that will take Africa away from its past”.
Noting that the continent was on the threshold of a new and exciting future, the business delegates added: ”We hereby pledge our full support and commitment to make the African dream a reality.” – Sapa