Thank you Mama Graça for what you said about the African Union
Excellency President of the Republic of South Africa, President Jacob Zuma;
Excellency Maged Abdelaziz, United Nations Undersecretary
Your Excellency Premier of Kwa Zulu Natal, Mr. Senzo Mchunu;
Ministers, Deputy Ministers, MECs, here gathered
Leaders of the ruling party and leaders of political parties here gathered I have heard that Bab’ Shenge and Holomisa are here
Your worship the Deputy Mayor of EThekwini, Ms. Nomvuzo Shabalala;
Chairperson of the ACCORD Board of Trustees Mrs. Graça Machel and all the ACCORD Board of Trustees;
Mr. Vasu Gounden, Founder and Executive Director of ACCORD;
Members of the Diplomatic Corps;
Fellow Africans and friends who join us here and across the continent and world;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Let me express the deep gratitude of the leadership and staff of the African Union Commission to ACCORD for this award. We received the news of the Africa Peace Award with great excitement and humility. We accept this milestone accolade with the recognition that millions of ordinary and dedicated Africans have worked hard, and continue to toil tirelessly for peace and security on our continent. Our special gratitude goes to the negotiators, facilitators, and peacekeepers.
This Award is an honour to the millions of peace-loving and law-abiding citizens of the entire continent who remain custodians of peace and development, and an encouragement to us all to redouble our efforts in the struggle for peace and friendship. Equally, let us not forget the millions that have paid the ultimate prize in our quest for peace and development.
Honoured guests, may I invite you to observe a minute of silence and reflection in remembrance of peacekeepers and all who have lost their lives in conflicts across the continent, the latest being the recent terrorists attacks in Nigeria by Boko Haram and in Mali. Can we all rise….
Thank you
When I was thinking about responding and expressing our thanks and accepting this award I struggled on what I was going to say given that conflicts are as old as humanity itself and will continue as long as human beings exist and interact with each other. I see this award to the AU Commission as recognition of the on-going and huge efforts to manage conflicts and bring peace, in the context of the Solemn Declaration of the AU Heads of State and Government during the 50th Anniversary of the OAU now AU, when they committed themselves to Silencing the Guns by 2020, amongst other priorities. The question we ask ourselves is: “what needs to be done to achieve these objectives?”
The African Union through its Peace and Security Architecture has worked very hard to resolve conflicts, to build peace, working with many other partners like Accord. But as we can see today the nature of conflicts have changed, we do not see conflicts between countries, most (if not all) are internal in nature. We have also seen the rise of terrorism. But of course terrorism is not an African phenomenon, it’s a global phenomenon. Consequently, it means when we look at peace, nowadays we can no longer look just at Africa we have to look globally.
Being in South Africa, and Durban in particular, I thought we could go back to the past and learn some lessons because in this part of the world, we had the first African Noble Peace Prize winner our own iNkosi Albert Luthuli. Equally we also had Mahatma Ghandi, who we share with India, who sharpened his political consciousness here in South Africa, before he went back to India to lead the struggle against colonialism there. I thought we should revisit the issue if non violence which is a philosophy that informed lots of our struggles, including the struggle here. Because even when we have silenced the guns conflict will continue to happen but the difference is that they must be managed in a nonviolent way. Ghandi said:
“Non violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man”
What he taught us was also combined with his own way of life of austerity, transparency and self-criticism yet also unyielding on the question of principle.
Esteemed guests; For peace to be achieved we cannot only look at conflict resolution and its architecture but we also have to look at development. That is why ACCORD, even as Mam Graça was talking about what the AU is doing she did not confine herself to only what the AU is doing in peace issues but also in terms of development and our Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want which seeks to promote an “integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa…driven and managed by its own citizens representing a dynamic force in the international arena“.
Amongst the top priorities of Agenda 2063 is to empower people. It is important to ensure that we empower young people, men and women through education and skills. But we must also inculcate in their minds genuine tolerance of differences, dialogue, compromise and the spirit of give and take. Because without that we will not be able to manage conflicts in a nonviolent way. The dialogue must also include proper management of diversity… because we see most of our conflicts on the continent are to a large measure failure to manage diversity within the countries. And of course terrorism is also on the rise. So dialogue and management of diversity is important. The dialogue must be amongst people, cultures and religions and must be born out of mutual respect of cultures and religion without one seeking to dominate another. In this context, leaders are called upon to always show empathy and compassion towards their people, irrespective of colour, race, creed, religion, sex or age.
One of the other lessons we learnt from Kwame Nkrumah and many other leaders, including Ghandi is that self-sufficiency must be the basis of economic principle. It means that as Africans on the continent we should believe in ourselves, in our own solutions as has been said before and done before. We should also believe that we can utilise the resources that exist on this continent for the benefit of our people and create shared prosperity and inclusive growth. One of our ministers, the Foreign Minister of Namibia, said last year “Africa is rich but many Africans are poor“. We need to address that picture and ensure that not only Africa is rich but also that Africans are also not poor. We can, for the benefit of all Africans, change to a continent of shared prosperity and inclusive growth.
Inclusive socio-economic transformation implies the involvement of women at all levels of priorities and programmes, in all areas of human endeavour including peacekeeping, conflict resolution and post conflict reconstruction and development.
It is also important we must create a prosperous Africa where the wealth gap is not very wide because research has shown that where the gap is wider violence and violent crimes are significantly higher.
Other lessons that Ghandi advances, are still relevant today, this includes the lesson that “the earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need but not every man’s greed“. If we were to follow this lesson we would be able to have inclusive economic growth, shared prosperity, sustainable development and also look after our environment. We are hopeful that as the leaders will be gathering in Paris in a few weeks time they will come up with an agreement that will save our planet and reduce the effects of climate change we are already experiencing.
Excellencies and esteemed guests; It is not possible to have sustainable peace without dealing with poverty and justice. We must try and build a continent, which unleashes the creativity, energy and talent of every individual so that they can reach their full potential. This means we must create space for everyone including the poor to also benefit from the positive aspects of globalization. It would not possible to achieve peace in the world in the context where the top 10% of the wealthiest own 86% of the world’s wealth, whilst the bottom 50% own only 1% of the world’s wealth. Peace and development will be a fleeting illusion so long as half the population lives on less than $2 a day.
As we strive for peace and fight terrorism we should also address the root causes like poverty and injustice. We should also treat every man and woman with respect and dignity that we expect for ourselves.
Esteemed guests; Our policies and institutions of governance and democracy as well as financial institutions should promote the eradication of poverty. We should practice inclusive and participatory democracy, which allows descent and seeks to listen to other points of view. But at the same time strive to build consensus rather than repress different views.
Excellencies and esteemed guests, We also need to ensure financial inclusion for young people, women as well as the poor. Poor people are not poor because of their own making. I would like to quote, the founder of the Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus who once said:
“No matter how hard the poor masses try or how hard they work they remain trapped in poverty, because of the institutions and policies. A major example of this is financial institutions that we have created all over the world. Two thirds of the world’s population does not have access to financial services from the conventional financial institutions. That we systematically exclude poor people from financial services is tantamount to financial Apartheid”
We need to have policies, institutions and services based on Ubuntu.
Let Africa and its people rise…
Let us eliminate illiteracy, ignorance, hunger, and poverty and fight disease and let everyone have access to basic services and financing.
Let no one feel marginalised or discriminated against.
Let us fight injustice and intolerance.
Not only in Africa but across the world because terrorism and extremism is rising in the world and affecting Africa as well.
Let us hold people like Albert Luthuli, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Kwame Nkurumah, Che Guevara, Patrice Lumumba, Rosa Parks, Florence Maxekhe, Queen Nzinga as our guiding lights let’s not only see them as icons, lets see what we can learn and emulate from them.
It is not easy to emulate them but let us try to.
Let’s create prosperity not for the few but for all. Lets create economic growth that does not maximise profit for the shareholders only, but that promotes social and economic progress for all.
If the world were to address these injustices; including poverty, discrimination, humiliation and indignity; that are visited to many people all over the world we can stand a chance of having sustainable peace
I would like to thank Accord and all of you as well as those we have worked with us in partnership not only those we have worked today because what is being awarded today is work done over the years by many generations
I thank you
