African Union now has genuine star for a leader

By Justice Malala

South African politicians have been falling over themselves to congratulate Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the country’s home affairs minister, after she won the elections to lead the African Union.

But for many us her bitter-sweet victory leaves a sense of loss at the departure of one of government’s best-performing politicians.

Dlamini-Zuma has held cabinet positions since 1994, when she was health minister in Nelson Mandela’s government. She became chief proponent of Thabo Mbeki’s African renaissance push from 1999 as foreign affairs minister —though her record was blighted by South Africa’s failure to resolve the Zimbabwe problem.

Strong reformist

But in 2009, when she was appointed Home Affairs minister, she become a darling of the country and turned a corrupt and constantly derided department into one of the country’s most efficient.

South African passports, which were were easily forged and regularly falling into the hands of Al Qaeda and organised crime syndicates, which led to the United Kingdom imposing a massive visa fee and stringent vetting system for South African visitors. Waiting times for identification documents and passports have now been drastically reduced.

In a country where government corruption and incompetence is perceived to be on the rise, this is the one ministry that has demonstrably moved the other way.

In that sense, in a country that needs “can-do” politicians, Dlamini-Zuma’s departure is a major loss. But for the continent her appointment could lead to greater co-operation and ability to speak with one voice.

During her tenure as foreign minister she interacted with the world’s leaders at a time when the continent was the focus of campaigns to scrap developing world debt and permanently remove the stigma of what the Economist once called a “hopeless continent”.

With Mbeki as the main proponent of a New Deal for Africa, she was the nuts and bolts woman, the one who got the paperwork signed, sealed and delivered behind the scenes.

This deal-making, in which she forged alliances with the Nordic countries, signed deals with Tony Blair’s Labour government and struck agreements with the Bretton Woods institutions, will stand her in good stead when she moves to the gargantuan, Chinese-built AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Her in-tray will be full. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Guinea-Bissau are on the boil. An African-led international peacekeeping force is already set to intervene in the DRC, and the other two need urgent and skilful attention.

New path

The AU’s predecessor — the Organisation of African Unity — had a reputation as a protector of dictators. Dlamini-Zuma will have to forge a new reputation, one that has struggled to emerge, of an organisation that is principled in its defence of human rights and democracy.

This will not be helped by the fact that the AU still accommodates the likes of Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasago, who was until January its chair despite having been accused of serious human rights abuses.

She also has to heal the major rifts between Anglophone and Francophone countries that followed her election. South Africa was accused of bullying smaller countries into backing her election and conducting a smear campaign against Gabon’s Jean Ping, the incumbent and the man she defeated. Further, three Anglophone powerhouses did not back Zuma — Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia. Dlamini-Zuma starts well, though. As she said in a speech after her election: “I made it clear that this was not about me or South Africa, but should be seen as an achievement for the continent.”

Though questions have arisen on the continent about her marriage to President Zuma (they were divorced in 1998), in South Africa the two have worked harmoniously together. If anything, her diplomacy owes more to Mbeki than to Zuma.

The upside in all this for South Africa is that her position has largely been held by smaller countries, and the fact that it is now in the hands one of the continent’s powerhouses should lead to both a higher profile for the AU and for South Africa.

The writer is founding editor of South Africa’s This Day newspaper, publisher of the Sowetan and Sunday World, and Sunday Times correspondent in London and New York. This piece was first published in the Guardian.