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"African Union" to Replace OAU
South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Sunday that the envisaged "United States of Africa" would replace the current Organization of African Unity (OAU), and would focus on the economic regeneration of the continent as well as on political matters.
The new body would not take on the form of a federation of African countries, but would instead be a loose union with member states retaining their own sovereignty, cabinets and ministers, Zuma told the South African Broadcasting Corporation's Newsmaker Program.
She said the envisaged body could not be likened to the United States of America, but rather to the European Union.
"We believed that the OAU needed to be radically re-organized in order for it to be able to take the challenges that face us," she said.
Asked what would be the fate of countries refusing to become part of the new African union, Zuma said all countries have agreed to the concept in principle.
Namibia and Angola, she said, did not attended the recent OAU summit on the topic, not because they did not support the formation of such a union, but because they objected to holding the summit in Lome, Togo.
The union would come into effect as soon as two-thirds of African countries ratify the proposal.
According to Zuma, the union would not be headed by a secretariat, but rather by a body comprising the different African heads of state. It would furthermore be made up of a commission and a number of specialized committees, looking at issues the continent has to tackle jointly, such as education, health and human resource development.
Zuma denied reports that she would become the foreign minister of an envisaged "United States of Africa".
The body would not even have such a position, she said. "There is no such thing," she added.
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