South Africans have given a low-key reception to the Durban gathering that will see the demise of the 39-year-old Organisation of African Unity and the birth of the African Union (AU).
Having hosted the Non-Aligned Movement summit, the Commonwealth summit, the United Nations Aids conference and the World Conference Against Racism in successive years, Durbanites have become blase about the world coming to stay at their overpriced hotels.
In fact, what happened in the city this week was the significant clearing of technical hurdles that could have tripped up the whole AU process. If there was going to be trouble in the launch of the AU, it would have happened when the foreign ministers passed the rules governing procedures and structures of the new body.
The necessary compromises were reached and the real action can begin next week when heads of state endorse the work of their ministers.
President Thabo Mbeki is determined to make this a party the continent will not forget. He has agreed with fellow presidents to invite the Senegalese football team, who made it through to the quarterfinals of the World Cup. The Lions of Durango will party and parade but are unlikely to play against Bafana Bafana at such short notice.
Protocol staff will remember that the team, which made a high-profile visit to Taiwan on their way home from Japan last month, did more for the Taipei sex industry than for their expectant hosts. No fewer than 32 prostitutes were sent up to service the players, according to excited Taiwan newspapers.
Excluded from the bash is the non-African diplomatic corps. Only a handful of envoys, who specially requested invitations, will be there. The rest maintain they have been treated shabbily.
Undoubtedly the most important hurdle cleared was the ministers’ adoption of proposals for the AU Peace and Security Council. This envisages a body of five heavy-hitters elected for three years and another 10 nations elected for two years.
There was opposition from countries that maintained this structure resembled too closely the UN Security Council that Africans unanimously want to see reformed. Fears were also expressed that the new Africa would become a two-tier continent, with rich nations lording it over poor.
In the end the argument that prevailed was that no security council member would have either veto powers or permanency. The need to intervene in the cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity superseded claims to sovereignty.
The success chalked up in Durban has vindicated Mbeki’s decision to visit Tripoli last month to secure Moammar Gaddafi’s promise not to sabotage the AU launch, which the Libyan leader was known to want to host himself.
What the Brother Leader will do next remains anyone’s guess — it is not even certain that he will make an appearance in Durban.
Leaders will have to address the fraught issue of who will pay for the African dream.
As of Thursday at least 10 of them will be barred from speaking because they are behind on payments to the Organisation of African Unity.
Experience has taught the bean-counters that muzzling presidents is more effective than merely preventing them from voting. They have $36-million in back-payments to collect.
There will be price tags to AU membership. Countries wishing to host the summit will have to pick up the whole bill otherwise it will be held in Addis Ababa, which will remain the AU headquarters.
Three-year members of the peace and security council will have to show economies to match their ambition — and demonstrate an ability to finance peacekeeping operations.
Only a few countries can meet these conditions. Not coincidentally, at least four of these — South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt — are driving the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) process.
Leaders will start talking in Durban about how to fold Nepad into the AU structure. Until this happens, the programme, with its G8 seal of approval, will be the marketing arm of the new organisation.
Misgivings about Nepad were expressed in Durban this week by African trade unions, which felt its inception had been too ”top-down”. The more significant, and as yet unexpressed, reservations come from countries that do not yet match up to Nepad’s demands for good governance, fiscal discipline, transparency, the rule of law and respect for human rights.
Most vexing to them is the peer review component. Mbeki has indicated there can be no compromise on Africa policing itself — starting with Nepad. Without this measure, the developed world will not take the ”African renaissance” seriously.
The issue of jobs in the AU will also tie leaders down. The ministers have proposed delaying for six months the appointment of the 10-member AU Commission and its president, who will replace the Organisation of African Unity secretariat top structure.
Originally, the chairperson was to have had head of state status. The ministers, however, decided that ministerial rank was quite high enough. This has given new life to rumours that Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who has been taking immersion classes in French, will throw her hat into the ring.
However, an Addis Ababa insider insists that anyone who believes this has neither accurately gauged the feelings about Dlamini-Zuma within the African hierarchy nor understood and fully appreciated her domestic political ambitions.