DURBAN — South Africa has lost a titanic battle to rapidly transform the newly launched African Union (AU) into a formidable machine that would police errant nations and kick-start the continent’s economic revival after Libya swayed delegates that extra debate was needed on several issues.
The tension-filled three-day summit, which had been expected to crown reform-minded South African President Thabo Mbeki’s ascendancy to the leadership of a result-oriented united Africa, degenerated into horse trading common at previous meetings of the old Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
As was expected, oil-rich Libya which has bankrolled several African nations including Zimbabwe, managed to change the course of events without much of a fight from other African nations except South Africa, Nigeria and Senegal, among the very few.
Even at the end of business yesterday, it was not clear whether Mbeki had pushed through his agenda for the interim commission of the AU — the body that has displaced the OAU’s central organ — to meet within the next six months.
Mbeki himself insisted at a news conference yesterday, just after close of business, that the commission would have an extraordinary session in six months at some unidentified venue, largely believed to be South Africa.
The tension-filled three-day summit, which had been expected to crown reform-minded South African President Thabo Mbeki’s ascendancy to the leadership of a result-oriented united Africa, degenerated into horse trading common at previous meetings of the old Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
As was expected, oil-rich Libya which has bankrolled several African nations including Zimbabwe, managed to change the course of events without much of a fight from other African nations except South Africa, Nigeria and Senegal, among the very few.
Even at the end of business yesterday, it was not clear whether Mbeki had pushed through his agenda for the interim commission of the AU — the body that has displaced the OAU’s central organ — to meet within the next six months.
Mbeki himself insisted at a news conference yesterday, just after close of business, that the commission would have an extraordinary session in six months at some unidentified venue, largely believed to be South Africa.