Ministerial talks on proposed amendments to the constitution of the new African Union started on Monday in South Africa ahead of an extraordinary summit next month, the foreign ministry said.
”The foreign ministers or ambassadors from 18 countries are at a Sun City meeting under the chairmanship of Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma,” said foreign affairs representative Basetsana Thokoane.
The hotel resort of Sun City, about 150 kilometres west of Pretoria, is hosting the talks for two days.
”They are dealing with the issues that could not be resolved at the AU ministerial meeting in Tripoli last month,” Thokoane said.
”These include the role and powers of the AU chairperson, the role and powers of African ambassadors to the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa and the relationship between the AU and Africans in the diaspora,” she added.
An official statement said ministers were working to settle these points, which were set down in amendments tabled to the pan-African body’s Constitutive Act during its inaugural summit in the South African city of Durban last year.
The bulk of the amendments were proposed by Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi, one of the main sponsors of the African Union, which replaces the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) founded in the immediate post-colonial era.
Ministers were aiming to meet a deadline to have the issues settled ahead of an AU extraordinary summit next month in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, the headquarters of the 53-member organisation.
Countries represented at the ministerial meeting are Algeria, Burundi, Chad, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Lesotho, Libya, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The foreign ministry was unable to provide the names of the countries’ representatives. – Sapa