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When this intelligentsia, represented by such patriots as Mangena Mokone, broke away from the established white churches in the 19th century, it established the Ethiopian Church, so named to underline the fact that it was formed to assert the unity of our continent and its common determination to restore Africa's independence by liberating her from colonial rule.
As we reported in Vol 7 No 24 of this journal, this same sentiment was also conveyed by such founders of the ANC as John Langalibalele Dube and Pixley ka Izaka Seme well before the foundation of our movement. Thus was the ANC established not as a South African movement, but the organised leader of the peoples of Southern Africa.
We therefore went to Accra informed by a mandate in favour of African Unity that is deeply embedded in our history and the very being of our movement. We also went to Accra fully conscious of the enormous contribution that united African action had made to our own struggle for liberation, as encapsulated in the activities of the OAU and the sacrifices of the peoples especially of Southern Africa.
African self-reliance:
During the Accra Summit Meeting we also launched the Pan-African Infrastructure Investment Fund (PAIID). PAIID, currently capitalised at over R4 billion ($625 million), which is made up exclusively of African capital contributed by South African and Ghanaian pension funds, the African Development Bank, and South African private and public financial institutions.
This is the first time ever that our continent has combined to draw on Africa's own financial resources to address its developmental challenges. The launch of PAIID therefore made the unequivocal statement that Africa is determined to be its own liberator from poverty, underdevelopment and global marginalisation.
It gave concrete expression to the aspiration expressed during the Grand Debate on the Union Government that we must rely on ourselves to elaborate the policies and programmes and generate a significant part of the resources that will take us to the desired goal of a truly free Africa. We are confident that over the next 12 months, PAIID capitalisation will grow at least to R7 billion ($1 billion).
The launch of the PAIID served as a practical response to the passionate statement made by the President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, during the Grand Debate, when he said:
"I also agree with my brother, President Wade (of Senegal). We should not always say Africa is a sick continent. We may not be sick, but we are not very healthy! But we must also be honest, parts of Africa are very sick.
"That is why we are so dependent on donors. The donors are like doctors. The doctor keeps giving us our medicine, but we don't seem to be getting any better. Maybe the medicine is wrong! Maybe we have the wrong doctor!...
"If we want to succeed, we have to catch up with Asia and Europe fast. If we do not catch up, we will always be far behind. But how can you catch up when Asia and the West have such a big advantage?"
The launch of PAIID gave the powerful response that one of the things that we must do to catch up with Asia and the West is to rely on our resources, demonstrating that from now onwards we will not rely so exclusively on the "medicine" we receive from our donors. To emphasise this critically important development, PAIID has already identified the NEPAD infrastructure projects in which it should invest.
The APRM and a shared value system:
The other important matter we would like to mention is that the African Peer Review Forum made up of the Heads of State and Government of the African countries that have acceded to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), (now numbering 27), also met to consider the Reviews of Algeria and South Africa, as well as the annual reports on the Programmes of Action of the Governments of Kenya and Rwanda, originally elaborated to respond to the APRM reviews of these two countries.
There will be an opportunity in future for us to fully reflect on all the principal elements of the APRM Report on South Africa. For now we would like to mention only three important points that are directly relevant to the pursuit of the goal of African Unity, and especially what the Accra Declaration identified as "common values that need to be identified and agreed upon as benchmarks", in the effort to realise the vision of the United States of Africa.
The proceedings of the African Peer Review Forum demonstrated that the APRM is alive and well and is making a critical contribution to the creation of the new Africa. During these proceedings an important discussion also took place focusing on improving the quality of the work, and therefore the all-important credibility, of the APRM. I am certain this will make a valuable contribution to the critical objective further to improve the objectivity, precision and credibility of the APRM reports and emphasise the independence of the APR panel which has the task to prepare its own reviews of our countries.
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