Hon Speaker, I feel honoured today to participate in this important debate on Pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance. I want to focus on the New Partnership for Africa's Development, Nepad, as the developmental tool of the African Union, AU.
Co-operation, unity and integration are indispensable for a meaningful and effective African agenda of development. Kwame Nkrumah, one of the foremost architects and advocates of the Pan-Africanism philosophy, once described the economic balkanisation of African states as the most cardinal injustice of colonialism. He asserted that:
By far the greatest wrong which the departing colonialists inflicted on us, and which we now continue to inflict on ourselves in our present state of disunity, was to leave us divided into economically unviable states.
The Organisation of African Unity, OAU, was formed on 25 May 1963, to respond, among others, to the challenges of the colonisation of Africa, as elaborated on by Nkwame Nkrumah. The OAU issued a declaration adopted in Sirte, Libya, calling for the establishment of the AU with a view, inter alia, to accelerating the process of integration on the continent to enable it to play its rightful role in the global economy. The OAU's strategic objective was the attainment of independence from colonial rule whilst the AU set as its task to address matters of economic development of the continent.
The ANC's engagements with multilateral continental institutions in general and the New Partnership for Africa's Development in particular, are informed by its enduring policy approach, which places a high premium on the need for African countries to forge a meaningful economic co-operation and partnership if they are to correct historical trade imbalances and thereby advance the development agenda of Africa.
The ANC in its 1992 Ready to Govern policy document said the following: Trends in the world economy make it essential for countries located outside of the major trading blocks of the advanced industrialised economies to forge greater co-operation. An ANC government will seek to actively promote economic co-operation in Southern Africa in ways that will correct existing imbalances and promote nonexploitative relationships.
In his recent interview on the subject of the 50th Anniversary of the OAU, the former President of Namibia, hon Sam Nujoma, described the role of the AU when he said:
The aim is to create more economic independence from the exploitation of African mineral resources to the control of those resources, and the riches of the continent to benefit the African people. We should be able to trade as sovereign states with other countries of the world. You should have one passport to enable you to move from here to Egypt, to Dakar, to Algeria, needing only an identity document saying that you are a Namibian, an African and that you are at home wherever you are on the continent.
The ANC supports this mandate of the AU of economic development and integration. In doing so we are inspired by the instructive resolution of the ANC's 53rd National Conference under the able leadership of President Jacob Zuma which resolved that the development and prosperity of Africa remain the central objective of the ANC's international perspective and policy for the purpose of advancing the African Renaissance.
Nepad is one of the tools through which the AU is pursuing the development agenda of Africa. It aims to provide an overarching vision and policy framework for accelerating economic co-operation and integration among African countries. Nepad is an economic development programme of the AU. It was adopted at the 37th Session of the Assembly of Heads of States and Governments in July 2001 in Lusaka, Zambia. It aims to provide an overarching vision and policy framework for accelerating economic co- operation and integration among African countries.
It is a merger of two plans for the economic regeneration of Africa, namely the Millennium Partnership for the African Recovery Programme, Map, led by former President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa in conjunction with former President Olesegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, and the Omega Plan for Africa developed by President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal. At a summit in Sirte, Libya, in March 2001, the OAU agreed that the Map and Omega Plans should be merged.
Together with the above-mentioned African leaders, former President of the Republic of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, was one of the foremost African thinkers who pioneered, championed and articulated the vision of Nepad. In his address to the Nepad Stakeholders Dialogue on 22 October 2004, on Nepad's priorities, former President Mbeki had this to say:
The issues of democracy, good political, economic and corporate governance, and regional integration are necessary conditions for development. These necessary conditions, coupled with other Nepad priorities such as infrastructure development; banking and financial standards; agriculture and market access are creating positive conditions conducive for better investment, reducing business costs and increasing Africa's competitiveness in the world economy.
Nepad will not succeed in an environment of political instability. The AU is very much aware of this.
One of the anniversary themes agreed upon by the AU is: "One Africa for Prosperity and Peace." Subtheme number five of these anniversary themes talks of issues of African security. It emphasises the promotion of peace and security; preventing and ending conflict and post-conflict reconstruction; strengthening capacity of African peace, security and governance architecture to ensure African solutions to African problems; addressing root causes of conflict with a focus on human security and inclusive political cultures; and promoting common African defence and security against internal and external threats including neo-colonialism, climate change, disease, and external interference.
There can be no doubt whatsoever that the AU has reduced the number of unconstitutional takeovers of governments on the continent. Most African countries are embracing democracy and the rule of law. Thanks to the AU and the role that South Africa continues to play, this will undoubtedly enhance the success of Nepad.
Nepad is a distinctly Pan-Africanist concept in the hands of Africans to leverage collective resources for the development and common good of the African people. Key to understanding and using this Nepad tool for deepening and enhancing development in Africa is to recognise the centrality of integration and co-operation which resides in Nepad as a tool.
The notion of integration is deeply nuanced in scholarly definitions of Pan- Africanism. Almost without exception, all definitions of Pan- Africanism depict it as inherently conveying ideas which undermine the balkanisation of Africa into what Nkurumah refers to as economically unviable states.
The ideas of unity, solidarity and co-operation are integral to Pan- Africanism, as evident in the definition of Pan-Africanism itself as an ideology and movement that encourages the solidarity of Africans worldwide. Pan-Africanism is based on the belief that unity is vital to economic, social and political progress and aims to unify and uplift peoples of African descent.
Economic integration is so vital to the goals of Pan-Africanism because it holds together the people living in a territory. Nepad is defined as a vision and strategic framework for Africa's renewal. It is aimed at dealing with the current challenges facing the African continent. Some of these challenges include the escalating poverty levels, underdevelopment and the continued marginalisation of Africa. In spite of all these challenges .... [Time expired.] I thank you. [Applause.]