Africans, not foreign donors, must fund AU: Dlamini-Zuma
CAPE TOWN — The chairperson of the AU commission, Nkosazana DlaminiZuma has said that Africa must be able to fund the African Union if the continent's programmes are to be successfully implemented.
"We must fund our own organisation. You can’t have an organisation that is funded by outside people [and yet] you have [your own] agenda… I am proud to say yes, a decision was made last year that we must fund our own organisation – for operations 100%, for programmes 75% and for peace and security 25%," said Dlamini-Zuma.
She said this in Pretoria where she engaged with South African editors on her blueprint agenda 2063 for the AU.
Dlamini-Zuma said that the AU had since agreed on the method to use to fund the organisation.
The AU resolved at a summit in Kigali, Kwanda, in July that all member states were to charge a 0.2% levy on all eligible imports, in a move to limit donor dependency.
Reports at the time indicated that funds generated through the levy would fund the AU commission’s programmes and would go a long way to relieve financial challenges faced by the organisation.
According to reports, the African Union currently took almost six months to intervene in a conflict on the continent. The organisation, therefore, wanted to cut that time by more than half.
Being dependent on foreign donors meant that the AU couldn’t intervene in conflicts the way it wanted to.
Dlamini–Zuma: "The responsibility of keeping peace and security in the world is the responsibility of the UN Security Council and that’s why Africa is fighting to be in the security council as a permanent member because it’s the permanent members who decide these things and Africa is absent there."
She said that Africa decided to have its own peace a n d security architecture precisely because it felt that the security council was not prioritising African issues.
"When it was African issues, firstly it [security council] was coming [up] with wrong solutions, secondly, it was acting slowly and inadequately. Even now, if you look at DRC, for how long has that peacekeeping mission been there? It spent billions but when the M23 [rebels] started to attack people, they didn't do anything.
“It was the Africans who then insisted that there must be a brigade that will deal with the M23 so that it stops attacking women, children and the people in DRC. So I think we should all be fighting for KHARTOUM — Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is to appoint a prime minister, reinstating a post abolished after he came to power in a 1989 Islamist-backed coup, officials said on Wednesday.
The delegation of certain powers to a prime minister would fall in line with reforms proposed by a national dialogue held between Bashir’s government and some opposition groups.
Bashir himself had abolished the post of premier after he led a bloodless coup almost three decades ago against then premier Sadiq al-Mahdi with the help of Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi.
But on Wednesday, a top aide to Bashir told the Sudanese parliament that the president will now appoint a prime minister to head his government.
“The president’s proposal forms part of changes to be made in the country’s constitution based on recommendations from the national dialogue,” said Al-Rashid Haroon.
A prime minister is expected to be appointed within the next two months, officials said.
“This is a positive step because the prime minister will have some of Bashir’s powers,” Al-Noor Ahmed, editor of leading Sudanese daily Assayha, told AFP. Africa to be part of the security council,” she said.
Dlamini-Zuma also made reference to Libya, saying that the bombings that took place in the north African country, leading to the death of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, was a decision that was taken in the security council.
“It was supposed to be a ‘no fly zone decision’, but they went beyond that. The AU doesn’t have an air force to go and fight there…. We don’t control an army, we don’t control the air force, or the navy, or anything as the AU.
But what I can tell you is that the AU wants to silence the guns. The AU does try and control situations that happen,” she said. — Newews24.
Bashir to appoint PM for first time since coup
“The prime minister will also be accountable to parliament, which is different because the president is not.”
Ahmed hoped the post of prime minister would go to an “outsider” and not a member of Bashir’s National Congress Party.
“It would be better if the prime minister’s powers are defined in the new constitution and not by the president,” he added.
Earlier this month, Bashir concluded a year-long national dialogue aimed at resolving the insurgencies in Sudan’s border regions and healing the country’s faltering economy.
He launched the dialogue in October 2015 but the talks were boycotted by most mainstream opposition and armed groups.
On October 10, Bashir submitted a “national document” which will serve as a framework for a new Sudanese constitution.
The document has been signed by the government and some small opposition and rebel groups which took part in the talks.
Sudan currently has a transitional constitution adopted in 2005, ahead of the country’s north-south split in 2011 following two decades of civil war. — AFP.