The Inkatha Freedom Party has hailed the African Union as a beacon of hope for the continent facing enormous challenges. The IFP said this in a statement issued today applauding this week's Summit of the Organisation for African Unity in Zambia, which approved the formation of the AU.

The IFP's Foreign Affairs Parliamentary Spokesperson, Mr Koos van der Merwe said the AU is a noble effort, which shows Africa's preparedness to grapple with issues of poverty and economic development for the masses of the African populations who have never tasted real freedom since the winds of change first blew in the continent.

Mr van der Merwe continued:

"The AU is a beacon of hope which signals a new beginning for Africa. It indicates Africa 's realisation that political freedom alone is no panacea for so many challenges facing the continent. The AU must be Africa's loudest statement that the struggle for complete liberation is beginning yet again and in full force."

"The AU must be Africa's loudest statement that the time has come to seek African solutions to African problems. History knows that, perhaps for the sake of consolidating unity, the forerunners of African liberation, decided to stick to European solutions, which ran roughshod over African realities of traditional communities and indigenous systems of governance and forms of leadership. African leaders tolerated boundaries arbitrarily drawn by foreign powers, which at best ignored African ethnic and cultural diversities. African leaders came to associate Unitarianism with the best that democracy could offer, at the expense of pluralism."

"These have come to hunt Africa at this day and age. Indeed for the AU to deliver on the promises it has generated, its leaders must be prepared to place the good of the continent above their own good. Otherwise the AU will go down in history as an effort which could not achieve its noble objectives."

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