Egypt to chair AU – followed by Cyril
President al-Sisi to concentrate on security and peacekeeping
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was announced on Sunday as chairperson of the African Union for 2020‚ when he will take over from Egyptian President Fattah el-Sisi‚ AU chair for 2019.
Nearly six years after the African Union shut Egypt out in the cold, it will take the organisation’s helm this year.
Some say strengthening multilateral powers is unlikely to be on its agenda. Cairo’s tenure will probably concentrate on security and peacekeeping, Ashraf Swelam, who heads a think tank linked to the country’s foreign ministry, said.
Sisi will likely focus less on financial and administrative reform than his predecessor, Swelam said. Such reform was the cornerstone of outgoing AU chair Paul Kagame’s year.
The Rwandan president has pushed for a continent-wide import tax to fund the AU and reduce its dependence on external donors, who still pay for more than half the institution’s annual budget.
An African diplomat said Egypt – along with fellow heavyweights SA and Nigeria – does not want a powerful AU. This diplomat, who has been tracking AU affairs for over a decade, said Cairo has “never forgotten” its 2013 suspension.
The near year-long lock out from the AU came after Egypt’s army deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who in 2012 was the country’s first democratically elected leader.
Sisi is due to take the helm at the AU’s biannual heads of state assembly, which takes place on February 10 and 11 at the AU’s gleaming headquarters in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.
As usual, the continent’s multiple security crises will be high on the VIPs’ agenda.
Rwanda’s ambitious funding proposal will also likely be on the table. But it has met resistance not only from Egypt, but other member states, so may fail to pass.
Reform of the AU Commission is an even more sensitive topic. In November 2018, most states rejected a proposal to give the head of the AU’s executive organ the power to name deputies and commissioners.
But the Egyptians are fully engaged in pushing other AU reforms, according to an AU official. One key initiative backed by Cairo is the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), an initiative agreed by 44 of 55 member states in March 2018.
The single market is a flagship of the AU’s “Agenda 2063” programme, conceived as a strategic framework for socioeconomic transformation.
However, the trade pact has met resistance from SA.
Sisi will need to push hard for ratification of this accord, if it is to come into effect.
For International Crisis Group Africa advocacy head Elissa Jobson Sisi can be expected to “use the presidency to increase his country’s standing among other African states”.
“This is not a departure from previous administrations”, particularly that of the outgoing chair, she added.
“Kagame showed that the presidency can be used to promote national interests and boost a leader’s international profile,” Jobson said.
The AU official said Rwanda’s president will remain a point person for the organisation’s broad reform agenda, despite handing over the chair.