CAPE TOWN – THE industrialised world should not hold the New Partnership for
Africa’s Development (Nepad) hostage because of mistakes made in
Zimbabwe, Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin said on Monday.
Speaking at a development conference in Cape Town, he said the
economic recovery plan must be owned and implemented by Africa.
”If (Nepad) is not owned and implemented by Africa, it will
fail.
”We cannot be hostage to the political whim of the G8 (group of
industrialised nations), or any other group. We must act to develop
ourselves.”
The mistakes made by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s
Zanu-PF government, and the considered response by Africa, should
not be lightly judged by the powerful.
African government were capable of making mistakes, the results
of which would be quickly felt.
”This is maybe why we think longer and harder about what we do
in matters like the present challenges north of us (in Zimbabwe),” Erwin said.
Western governments have warned African leaders — and South
African President Thabo Mbeki, in particular — that Nepad was at risk if Africa did not take tougher action against Mugabe.
Most African leaders have accepted the Zimbabwean president’s
controversial re-election, which Western observers have condemned
as severely flawed.
However, a Commonwealth troika, including Mbeki and Nigerian
President Olusegun Obasanjo, last week agreed to suspend Zimbabwe
from the organisation for one year.
Erwin also said that while there had been significant progress
in many parts of the world, development in Africa had been
disappointing.
”In Africa some countries have experienced considerable success,
but by and large Africa’s development has been far from
satisfactory,” he said.
The world would become increasingly unstable unless a new
approach was adopted towards development in the poorer economies,
where the majority of the world’s people lived.
Leaders had to use the recent development conferences — in Doha
and Monterrey — and the World Summit on Sustainable Development
(WSSD) in Johannesburg later this year, to usher in this new
approach.
”From the Millennium Summit to Doha, to Monterrey, to
Johannesburg, is a path that must result in a new dispensation,”
Erwin said. – Sapa