Hon Speaker, hon members, let us reiterate that today, when the visitors leave North Africa, when the visitors leave the Middle East, it will be the Africans that will still have to solve the problems of the African continent.
In 1986 a Kenyan scholar, Ali Mazrui, called for a metaphorical bridge across the Red Sea that would reintegrate Africa with Arabia several million years after a natural cataclysm tore the Arabian peninsula from the rest of Africa. He noted that, just as in the view of continental Pan- Africanists, the Sahara Desert is a sea of communication linking states below it with their neighbours above it. So, the Red Sea could become a similar bridge. Mazrui also noted that, until the 1950s, Emperor Haile Selassie had officially located Ethiopia as part of the Middle East rather than Africa, before re-Africanising the country, like Egypt's Nasser.
How can South Africa, with a developmental South African foreign policy, build bridges between North Africa, the Horn of Africa and the rest of the continent? It is maybe important to reiterate - for those, again, who do not understand the premise that we move from - what we said before 1994 and what we continue to say: The essence of the ANC-led government in South Africa's foreign policy is to promote and protect the interests and values of its citizens. We pride ourselves on a commitment to peace and to human dignity in the far corners of the globe. We recognise, however, that the security of our people and their yearning for a nonracial, nonsexist democracy also lies close to the foreign policy of a democratic South Africa. Furthermore, it will actively promote the objectives of democracy, peace, stability, development and mutually beneficial relations amongst the people of Africa, as a whole, as well as Pan-African solidarity.
South Africa's viewpoints reflect our domestic character - a constitutional state bound by the rule of law. Why does it have to be different when it comes to the other parts of Africa? The events described in a recent editorial in The Guardian, "Ten days that shook the world", spread from Tunisia to Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Yemen, Djibouti and Morocco. It was a revolution sparked by the self-immolation of a heroic street vendor in Tunisia. It has erupted throughout the Middle East and affected the international community.
It has strengthened our resolve and belief, as the ANC, to continue to reiterate the following: a belief in and a preoccupation with human rights which extend beyond the political, embracing the economic, social and environmental; a belief that just and lasting solutions to the problems of humankind can only come through the promotion of democracy worldwide; and a belief that justice and international law should guide the relations between nations. Why must it be different in other countries if we believe it here in South Africa? It is a belief that international peace is the goal to which all nations should strive. Where this breaks down, internationally agreed peaceful mechanisms to solve conflicts should be resorted to, and not bombing - as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, Nato, is still continuing with up till today, even during the month of Ramadan.
Furthermore, we believe that our foreign policy should reflect the interests of the continent of Africa; that South Africa's economic development depends on growing regional and international economic co- operation in an independent world; and that our foreign relations must mirror our deep commitment to the consolidation of a democratic South Africa.
That is why we joined the Organisation for African Unity, OAU, as it was called then. The prime objective was to help the organisation realise its goals of deepening the unity of Africa's diverse peoples and cultures, and advancing their common wellbeing. It is disappointing to hear that no one spoke about the fact that we need to strengthen and continue to strengthen this organisation and not look on the other side of the Mediterranean.
Security is not only limited to military matters. It has important political, economic, social and environmental dimensions. In addition, the security of the state is dependent on meeting the social, cultural, political, economic and human rights needs of its people. Enduring security can be achieved through national and regional efforts to promote democracy, respect for human rights, sustainable development, social justice and environmental protection.
We believe that the threat or use of force by one state against another is an unacceptable instrument of foreign policy. This Parliament must condemn it as such and not try to find other means of defending it.
In 1994 we stated, as a democratic South Africa, that we will endorse international resolutions concerning the United Nations Charter. These are the Manila Declaration, the Declaration of the Principles of International Law and many others. Africa has the best possibility in this milieu of emerging from an era of political and social decline into a renaissance of hope and social progress. It can, on a massive scale, turn adversity into opportunity.
Good governance plays a key role in rebuilding postconflict countries. Since the human and institutional resources needed in that reconstruction have often fallen victim to the previous violence, we believe that countries in this transition phase require the assistance and co-operation of the international community. These are the things that we must talk about - not about how we must hang our heads in shame. The task is thus to build transparent, efficient and participative governance structures that can help to stabilise the volatile transformation of postconflict societies. You sort out these farm workers in the Western Cape. [Interjections.] Many people write off Africa as a hopeless place where rampant civil wars use children as cannon fodder and military coups keep people's aspirations for freedom at bay. It may be true that this is the only image we view daily on television news and read in the international press. Fortunately, however, there is a different image of Africa. It is an image that signifies a new wind of change blowing over Africa - a wind that started from the Republic of South Africa, the continent's youngest and healthiest nation, gathering momentum to sweep away all political, economic, social and environmental ills in Africa.
Africa saw its first winds of change in the 1960s with many of our great leaders. What we should be talking about is what the African Union, AU, has agreed upon in its African Charter. How do we learn the lessons of strengthening these noble ideas and decisions taken by these African leaders? How do we strengthen them against the diversity that we see coming from different worlds? Why do we have to compromise on the position that we have taken and say that it will be good to rather opt for war instead of opting for what, in South Africa, we were quite happy to go and do: find a peaceful solution? Why can we not defend that same one when it comes to all the other countries in Africa?
We should strengthen the African Charter and make sure that we implement the promotion of holding regular free and fair elections to institutionalise the legitimate authority of representative government, as well as the democratic change of governments. We should prohibit, reject and condemn unconstitutional change of government in any member state as a serious threat to stability, peace, security and development. Furthermore, we should make sure that, as in Article 23 in the African Charter that speaks of unconstitutional changes of government, we speak out more to strengthen such provisions and ensure that such changes do not happen.
We stated in there that parties agreed that the use of, inter alia, the following illegal means of accessing or maintaining power constitutes an unconstitutional change of government and shall draw appropriate sanctions by the Union. Countries have agreed in the African Charter that any coup d'tat against a democratically elected government should not be accepted; any intervention by mercenaries to replace a democratically elected government should not be accepted; any replacement of a democratically elected government by armed dissidents or rebels should not be accepted; any refusal by an incumbent government to relinquish power to a winning party or candidate after free, fair and regular elections ... [Interjections.] ... should not be accepted ...
HON MEMBERS: Zimbabwe!