Mbeki hands over AU baton
11 July 2003
President Thabo Mbeki has officially handed over the chairmanship of the African Union (AU) to Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, who will lead the continental body for the next 12 months.
Mbeki, who chaired the opening of the second AU summit on Thursday, shook hands with and hugged Chissano before leaving the stage to take his seat on the floor next to South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad.
In his opening address, Mbeki appealed to the gathereda African heads of state, their delegations and countries to support Chissano and the AU commission in oiling the wheels of the body as the continent moves ahead to undo the legacy of colonialism.
Earlier in the week, South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma handed over the chairmanship of the council of ministers to her Mozambican counterpart, Leonard Simao.
Dlamini-Zuma said South Africa had succeeded in introducing the year-old African body to the global
audience, including taking it to Africans in the Diaspora, the United Nations, the G8 summit, the European Union, Asian and Islamic summits, the Caribbean and individual countries.
"The AU has been reconnected to the family of the world. I can say that the AU has been appropriately introduced and accepted by the rest of the world. They are now watching whether we are able to nurture it and let it grow properly," she told the AU executive council meeting earlier this week.
During its tenure as AU chair, Mbeki's administration successfully intervened to bring peace in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, encouraging talks that finally gave birth to peace deals and interim power-sharing governments.
Pretoria also helped negotiate peace in conflict-ridden Madagascar, Ivory Coast, the Comoros and Angola, while mobilising international support for Africa's economic blueprint, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), and its
structures.
The AU was also praised globally for its opposition to the military invasion of Iraq and for refusing to dismiss Iraqi envoys in the continent, particularly in Pretoria, without the UN's approval. The continental body has emphasised the need to strengthen multilateral institutions, saying it is in the interests of the world to do so.
The challenge facing Mozambique, as the incoming AU chair, will be to ensure that, with the cooperation of other African countries, all envisaged AU structures, such as the Peace and Security Council and the Pan African Parliament, are successfully established.
Source: BuaNews
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