Despite mounting criticism of the African Union, specifically over its delayed and muted response to the Zimbabwean crisis, pessimists simply cannot write off the Organisation of African Unity’s (OAU) successor and the constituent institutions that are meant to give it teeth.
Inaugurated in South Africa in July 2002, its founders have been careful for the AU not to be seen as the repackaging of old wine (the OAU) in new bottles, but rather as a true expression of pan-Africanism and self-determination. The major advance is that OAU member states never feared intervention in their internal affairs, whereas the new AU gave itself the radical new right to do so. Former AU chairperson Alpha Konare described this as moving from ”non-interference” to ”non-indifference”.
The recently published book The African Union and Its Institutions deals with these issues and assesses the AU’s structures, institutions and commitments.
Key among these are the Economic, Social and Cultural Council, which allows the space for civil society to influence AU leaders; the AU’s 15-member Peace and Security Council, which can make decisions based on a two-thirds majority vote (unlike the OAU’s insistence on consensus); and the African Court, which can issue binding decisions that may be turned into political measures against an offending state.
Africa’s eight major regional economic communities, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC), are crucial to the effective functioning of AU institutions.
Each regional community has been given the responsibility for the establishment of, among other things, harmonious regional norms and policies. In this context, the AU’s current chairperson, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, has been careful not to contradict SADC’s stance on Zimbabwe: the AU cannot but allow SADC to take the lead in addressing the situation there.
The AU is, therefore, the sum of its parts: the member states and heads of state; the regional economic communities; and its institutions. Without their support, the AU is a colossus with feet of clay. Any effort to mobilise its response to crises on the continent should be cognisant of this reality.
John Akokpari, of the department of political studies, University of Cape Town; and Angela Ndinga-Muvumba, senior researcher at the Centre for Conflict Resolution, Cape Town, are co-editors of The African Union and Its Institutions (Jacana)