African leaders need to stop competing and focus on agenda

THE African continent is one of the impediments to the realisation of UN Security Council reform. Now is the time for flexibility at the African Union.

President Jacob Zuma has said: “Africa needs to compromise – not reiterate fixed positions as it has done for the past nine years.” For this reason, Zuma advocated an African Foreign Ministers’ retreat in February 2014 to review the 2005 Ezulwini Consensus.

Africa must move on from the Ezulwini Consensus that insists on immediate veto powers for new permanent members of the council. Africa should join the voices of other powers comprising the G4 coalition – India, Brazil, Japan and Germany – and call for a major expansion of the council without demanding immediate veto rights.

In this way, Africa will be part of a potent reform coalition which is more likely to succeed, and secure the continent a permanent voice in critical decision-making on international peace and security.

Until Africa can speak with one voice on this issue, reform campaigns will flounder.

As China’s special representative on African affairs, Zhong Jianhua said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum last week: “For UN Security Council reform to be realised, Africa needs to unite and come up with a unanimous idea.”

Once Africa truly speaks with one voice, then powers in the permanent category like China are more likely to back their demands.

The G4 coalition has launched the strongest campaign to date for new permanent Security Council seats. The coalition is arguing for an additional six permanent seats (two for Africa, two for Asia, one for Latin America, and one for Europe), and four additional nonpermanent seats. This would allow for a fairer representation of regional interests.

To make their demands more palatable in the short term, the G4 have agreed to temporarily shelve the issue of veto rights – something the African states are loath to do. In the past, the AU has rejected second-class seats without vetoes. South Africa has been willing to suspend demands for veto rights, and might even accept interim proposals for longer-term renewable seats.

Among South Africa’s top priorities at the AU Summit this week in Sandton is to forge consensus among African leaders on UN Security Council reform.

This issue has been discussed so frequently over the past 20 years that cynics would say it is unlikely anything new can be brought to the table. After all, no one believes the permanent five members of the UN Security Council are really interested in reform or expansion of the council, thereby diluting their power. The result has been that reform campaigns have languished over the years.

There are high hopes of greater collaboration with the new Nigerian administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, which could ultimately lead to a common African position on Security Council reform, where the specifics of Africa’s representation are agreed to.

South Africa has always been seized with the issue of UN Security Council reform, given that it is the most important global body which can make binding decisions on matters of international peace and security. Given that 70 percent of issues dealt with on the council concern the African continent, it is imperative that Africa is represented with a permanent seat.

The smaller rivals to the G4 are determined to prevent their bigger neighbours from acquiring more power. Known as the “Coffee Club”, these nations include Turkey, Spain, Italy, Argentina, Mexico and South Korea. In terms of the big powers, China is also reticent to see its regional competitor, Japan, acquire a seat, just as France would be reluctant to have Germany on the council.

Africa, just like other global regions, has spoiler nations which take the position that if they cannot get a UN Security Council seat, then no state in the region should. It has been alleged that spoilers dominate the AU’s Committee of 10, which has been mandated to pursue UN reform, and has held a number of meetings on the continent.

Whatever spoilers exist, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is chairing the AU Summit in Sandton and he has historically called for Africa to have permanent representation on the Security Council.

In April this year, Mugabe co-chaired a conference in Jakarta where he called on Africa and Asia, which together constitute 75 percent of the global population, to stake their claim in international affairs and demand the reform of the Security Council.

If this reform project is really to succeed, this week’s AU Summit is critical in terms of bringing the continent together behind a realistic African position.

African leaders need to stop competing and upstaging each other, and acknowledge that the most important objective is joining the UN’s top decision-making body and pursuing the continent’s agenda on peace and security issues.