Private sector ‘could assist AU’

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma

NKOSAZANA Dlamini-Zuma, the new chairwoman of the African Union (AU) Commission, said on Thursday the private sector could be part of the solution for the organisation’s financial problems.

"We need to try to mobilise governments and the private sector to see if they could assist," she told Business Day.

Of the AU’s total $278m budget for next year, more than 50% ($155m ) will come from "international partners". Including the AU Commission’s programmes, the figure rises to 97%, with member states contributing just $5.37m to the programme budget of $160.7m.

At a meeting of business leaders in South Africa last month, shortly after taking office, Ms Dlamini-Zuma expressed shock about how much of AU funding comes from foreign donors. She acknowledged the difficulties this poses for the AU in setting its own priorities.

Asked how the AU had allowed this to happen, Ms Dlamini-Zuma laughed, seemingly a little embarrassed, and said: "I’m not sure how we got into that situation." She emphasised the value of external support for the AU, but added that it would be more encouraging to donors if member states contributed their own resources.

"If you ask somebody to help you with something and you don’t put anything in, they are not sure how seriously you are taking that yourself," she said.


In establishing last year the high-level panel on alternative sources of financing, headed by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, Ms Dlamini-Zuma said the AU had recognised there was a problem in its funding mechanism.

But it was unclear if African countries were willing to put their hands deeper in their own pockets for the budget.

Her circumspection is not misplaced. When the panel submitted its report to the Assembly of Heads of State in July, the report included proposals for a $5 tax on airline flights to the continent and a 5c levy on text messages. It was rejected. New proposals are expected in May.

Ms Dlamini-Zuma refused to be drawn on the crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, saying only that she was heading to Uganda for talks at the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region.

She issued a statement on Monday condemning the rebels and demanding the group "immediately and unconditionally put an end to its offensive".

Since assuming her new duties, Ms Dlamini-Zuma has stressed the need to balance conflict resolutions — which she said takes "a lot of time, a lot of energy and a lot of resources" — with development. Her stock phrase is: without development there can be no peace.

"We’ve seen everywhere, if you don’t have development, if people don’t feel included and they feel they are in the margins of the economy or the political dispensation … they will begin to cause instability."

From her first day in office she was drawn into peace and security matters — first in Mali and now in Congo.

Her first official visit as chairwoman was to Bamako and, until the M23 rebels marched on Goma, the conflict there took up most of her time. She was more expansive on that subject, insisting there would be no secession nor sharia-ruled Islamic state. All armed groups would have to enter peace talks. She declined to give a timetable for the deployment of regional troops.

"I think we should just do our best to make sure that we create a human-centred organisation, and not try and step into men’s shoes," she said, "but create an organisation that is home to both men and women."

Whether she manages to balance the competing, and sometimes conflicting, demands and priorities of peace and security with her development agenda remains to be seen.

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