The Southern African Development Community (SADC) defence pact is expected to be signed at the next Heads of State Summit in August, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Friday.
Much progress is also being made with the establishment of an African Standby Force, under the auspices of the African Union, he said during debate on his department’s budget in the National Assembly.
Lekota said although the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War promised peace, the world situation had instead become increasingly uncertain and more threatening. This was true for Africa too. Inevitably, the war on terror spilled into the African continent, which had now become one of the theatres of international terrorism, as witnessed by the recent attack in Morocco.
He added that the invasion of Iraq had inflicted great damage on the United Nations (UN) system but has not rendered it redundant.
Lekota emphasised the need ”to speed up reform of the UN and the Security Council in particular”.
The minister noted commentary by Amnesty International which said that rather than making the world safer from terrorism, the war on terror had actually eaten away at collective security by making the world more dangerous.
”Actions in the name of the so-called war on terror have undermined international law and shield governments including that of the United States of America from scrutiny as they curtail the application of human rights.”
”What is no longer in doubt is that the world has to remould and reinforce collective security arrangements,” said Lekota.
”This consequence has imposed fresh obligations on African countries — singly, regionally, and continentally — to equip themselves to respond to all of these threats in a world which is becoming less secure as a result of unilateral actions by the great powers,” he said.
”There is growing consensus that there is need for increased representation for Africa and the developing world in general. The world cannot tolerate a situation where the few most powerful nations hold the majority of the nations of the world to ransom.”
”The situation today does not allow us to use the concept of a peace dividend either in defence planning or in the defence budget.
”The countries in our region and on our continent face the same challenges. We therefore need to pool our resources.
”To be effective, we need to deal with these problems collectively, and regional collectives like the SADC become more important.
”It is in this context that we are looking at a collective approach to defence on the continent under the auspices of the African Union [AU], through the development of common doctrine and the establishment of an African Standby Force.”
It was agreed within the AU that a ”common defence policy” was not a single policy for all of Africa, but a policy on how to collectively respond to threats.
Lekota said each country had to look at its doctrine and security evaluation, its assets, and what it could contribute to the common good in keeping with its resources.
The regional blocks, such as SADC, would then pull together to form a continental body.
As the biggest economy in the region, South Africa would always have to carry more responsibilities.
SADC was now in the last stages of finalising its mutual defence pact, which had been a complex process, and he was optimistic the pact would be signed in August.
The establishment of an AU standby force was at an advanced stage of discussion, and full consensus and agreement had been reached on a range of matters.
These included doctrine and posture; shifts in the nature of peacekeeping operations; inter-operability of forces; common standards of training, equipment and logistics; standard procurement regimes for commonly identified equipment needs; and the establishment of command structures.
A detailed report was expected at the next meeting of the African Chiefs of Staff in 2004, Lekota said. ‒ Sapa, I-Net Bridge