SPEECH BY PRINCE MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI, MP
PRESIDENT OF THE INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY

Madam Speaker:

Our beautiful African continent is one that overflows with beauty, hope and promise for all her children. As we gather under the looming shadow of Table Mountain in one of Africa’s fairest cities to celebrate Africa Day, one senses that the mighty African giant is moving forward.

There is much to celebrate. The African Union is beginning to taking root in member states. The institutions are being bedded down. The Pan-African Parliament is starting to voice the aspirations and needs of the peoples of Africa.

The realisation of a self-reliant and prosperous Africa no longer seems like an elusive phantom.

Yet much work remains to be done. The HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to blight the lives of millions of Africans leaving a trail of destruction in its wake tearing asunder the social and cultural fabric of affected societies. The persistence of violent conflict in various regions of Africa, like Darfur and Côte d'Ivorie, continues to hold back development.

How do we rise to the great challenges posed by Africa?

For one, I believe a successful and prosperous African Union can only be made of successful and prosperous member states. At present, the AU, understandably, appears to be more of a political enterprise than an economic one.

By not setting universal criteria for membership, the new organisation gained an impressive array of member states but also forfeited a reliable yardstick to detect and act on transgressions against the democratic deficit or economic inefficiency.

NEPAD, and particularly its offshoot - the Peer Review Mechanism, are alternative ways of achieving this objective. We have yet, in all candour, to see conclusive results.

I also believe, the AU member states need to foster and realise greater economic integration through greater market efficiency and free trade before even contemplating closer political union.

In many ways, the creation of the plethora of AU political organs is to put the proverbial horse before the cart.

It is concerning in view of the problems that the OAU had, as well as the problems of subscriptions by African nations, which are being dramatized for us here in the Pan African Parliament. We owe Africa a big debt for standing by us during the liberation struggle against apartheid.

There is no doubt that apart from the fact that we have more resources than most of our sister states, it is pay up time for us. We need to, however, balance what we do for our continent with what we do to deal with the grinding poverty in our country.

It was heart rendering in recent days to see our people in the Port Elizabeth squatter camps flooded after the heavy rains. At the same time, we watched on television scenes of our people sleeping in the streets on one of the coldest nights of the winter.

We realise that not many countries in Africa can afford to pay their dues. Nor can any of us chide them for failing to do so because of the same gut-wrenching poverty which is a common feature of the whole continent.

Furthermore, I believe that the AU project must not be elite-driven by the governments of the member states. Ordinary Africans must see clear benefits of African integration such as rising prosperity and unlimited movement of goods, services and labour.

The drive for African integration must be from the “bottom-up”, which is something my party and I have always advocated at any level of government.

But in order to benefit even more, the developed markets must, in the future, embrace us as partners in its model free trade area.

I appeal to the European Union again today to remove all hindrances to trade and commerce with the African Union so many of the benefits the Europeans enjoy today can tomorrow be shared by Africans.

The objective of the African Union must therefore be to become integrated into a free trade area and customs union that extends from Cape to Cairo and that enjoys free access to the markets along the way and beyond. This, I believe, would be the foundation of a world-class market, larger and more interlinked than the world has seen before.

In simple terms, we would envisage a privileged partnership within one large free trade area with the African continent effectively being the Southern leg.

This would be the most effective way of promoting the vision of the AU to promote the socio-economic integration of the continent, which will lead to greater unity and solidarity between African countries and peoples.

Madam Speaker, such an arrangement would go much further than the African Commission and the promises of the G8 at this year’s Gleneagles meeting, which also I wholeheartedly support, to truly making this an African Century.

Africa need not be a “scar on the conscience of the world” as British Prime Minister Tony Blair so memorably put it.

On this Africa Day, let us rededicate ourselves to building a strong and prosperous Africa.

I thank you.