Post date: Oct 29, 2012 5:15:45 PM
The Africa Union Commission's first female chairperson talks about the challenges of her new role and the powers of the continental body in turbulent times.
SHOWS: PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA (REUTERS) - It's been a landmark year for Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who was elected the first female head of the African Union (AU) Commission in July, ending a leadership battle that had threatened to divide and weaken the organisation.
Dlamini-Zuma had to undergo three voting rounds before she took over from former Chair, Jean Ping.Four months after taking office the South African diplomat is getting down to business.
She says the continent would progress faster and see conflicts reduce if member countries focus on implementing policies that encourage development.
"On our continent the vast majority of our countries are stable and what they need is development. And I think it is important to always remember that the most important thing for the majority of the countries is development. And therefore we must work both for peace and security but also development, Because development is also a way of preventing a way of preventing conflicts," said Dlamini-Zuma
Dlamini-Zuma is facing immediate challenges as the AU tries to gain U.N. Security Council backing for a military intervention in northern Mali, where local and foreign al Qaeda-linked jihadists seized control after a destabilising coup in the southern capital Bamako in March.
The 63-year-old also says that an African plan for military intervention in Mali to help government troops reclaim territory from Islamist militants will be ready within weeks.
"So I think around Mali there are, there is unity of purpose, there is unity of ideas. So I think, so far, so good," said Dlamini-Zuma.
Regional and international efforts to deal with the situation, have been hampered by divisions over how to help.
Some envoys predict that it could be months before any kind of plan is put in motion and troops are trained and in place.
"We must also remember that the AU does not necessarily have the capacity in terms of financial resources in terms of equipment in terms of logistics, so, even when the AU wants to act, it is constrained sometimes," said Dlamini-Zuma.
Dlamini-Zuma has also inherited a dispute with the International Criminal Court (ICC) that has issued warrants of arrest in recent years for African leaders like Sudan's Omar al Bashir who is accused of masterminding genocide and other atrocities in Darfur.
The ICC's chief prosecutor has called for aid cuts to countries that fail to detain president Bashir.
African heads of state voted in 2009 not to cooperate with the ICC indictments, saying they would hamper efforts to end Sudan's multiple conflicts, and criticised the court for unfairly targeting African countries.
Bashir has since visited Kenya and Chad, both ICC members, as well as Ethiopia,Eritrea and other countries - an embarrassment for the global court.
"Yes I will be taking guidance from all the member states and the ICC is not our court. We have our own courts and I think that's the way we should be looking at. We are developing capacity and see if we can deal with issues and there fore I still maintain that because, the ICC is not part our statute is not part of the courts that all of us joined, so as the AU we cannot take a stand to use the ICC," said Dlamini-Zuma.
Dlamini-Zuma who has served as South Africa's home affairs minister and minister of health and foreign affairs, is expected to add to the global diplomatic clout of an African state which is already the continent's largest economy.