EFF statement on African Union Chairpersonship
6 February 2021
The EFF takes note of the virtual 34th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government that is taking place today and tomorrow in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
We welcome the election of President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo as the new chairperson of the African Union and wish him well in his tenure. We hope he shall not be a disappointment like his predecessor President Cyril Ramaphosa who shall be remembered for absolutely nothing other than his political impotency on African affairs.
Mr. Ramaphosa shall go down in history as the worse chairperson South Africa has ever forwarded to the continental body. In his tenure, the AU never condemned the conduct of Morocco in refusing to recognize the United Nations resolutions on the conflict in Western Sahara nor the continued Israel subjugation of the people of Palestine. The silence of the AU on the atrocities committed by his counterparts in other African countries was too loud to be unnoticed. Ramaphosa not only put his business interest above the rest in South Africa, he does the same with his in-laws, the atrocious government of Uganda where his family interest lies.
South Africa has lost the moral standing in Africa in the tenure of Ramaphosa. We are no longer the beacon of sterling leadership qualities because the man just never said anything on problems facing Africa. To date, conflicts are escalating in Africa and his voice from the eminent office he held at AU was nowhere to be heard, instead, he was twanging and saluting white monopoly capital.
The new chairperson of AU has a mammoth task as he inherits all the impotency of his predecessor.
The EFF looks forward to constructive engagements in the AU moving forward in the post-Ramaphosa era that has been characterised by dormancy, laziness and failure to think.
We call on President Tshisekedi to turn the tables around and restore AU to its former glory of its founding ancestors in 1963, the United States of Africa that is free from the imposed colonial borders.
In the tenure of Ramaphosa, the AU and its regional bodies did not have a continental wide coordinated and integrated anti- Covidl9 strategic plan, hence the commotion in the colonial imposed entry points and high mortality rate in Africa.
Mr. Ramaphosa has demonstrated least concern with gender equality hence his government is forwarding to the vacant position of AU Commissioners a list made up of men only, South Africa is not exemplary to the rest of Africa on the struggle for gender equality. The struggle against patriarchy is a lip service by his government for public relations.
The list of Ramaphosa's failures is long in his tenure as Chairperson of AU and we dismiss with the strongest contempt it deserves the presidency' self-praising statement on his alleged accomplishment as AU Chairperson.
Issued by Vuyani Pambo, National Spokesperson, EFF, 6 February 2021
