With South Africa set to take up its first-ever seat on the United Nations Security Council in New York on Monday night, officials in Pretoria labelled this ”the opportunity of a lifetime”.
They said they had been busy for months, analysing international hotspots and sharpening diplomatic pencils in readiness for South Africa’s role at the world body’s most powerful organ.
The Security Council deliberates and decides on the United Nations approach to conflict zones considered a threat to international security.
It has five permanent members — the United States, France, United Kingdom, China and Russia — and ten non-permanent members drawn for two-year terms on a rotating basis from different world regions,
”Ours will be a non-permanent seat and the permanent five obviously set the agenda but this is in many ways the opportunity of a lifetime for South Africa to show what it can do,” a senior official said hours before the expected vote confirming South Africa’s entry.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official confirmed that huge challenges lay ahead for South Africa.
It would have to strike a careful balance between the country’s already strongly held positions on many issues affecting, for example, Africa, within the framework of the African Union and Non-Aligned Movement, and possible differences with the views of some of the ”big five.”
”But it’s from challenges like this that the opportunities arise too … we have been consulting widely with many countries involved in various conflict zones around the world and particularly also in Africa,” said an official.
”We hope that at the end of the two-year term, South Africa will have made an impact on the broader [international] level and shown what we are capable of doing.”
Success for South Africa as a non-permanent member would add weight to the ongoing lobbying for reform at the UN and, possibly in years to come, a South African-held permanent Security Council seat for Africa.
Officials also confirmed that South Africa’s diplomatic mission at the UN headquarters would be strengthened, with the secondment of extra senior and experienced personnel for the two-year term. — Sapa