South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa has revealed that when his country assumes the championship of the African Union, focus will be placed on the African Union’s mission of “silencing the guns” on the continent as well as pursuing its Agenda 2063.
South Africa is due to assume the Chairmanship of the African Union in 2020 when Egypt’s tenure comes to an end.
During his visit to Ghana this week, the South African leader said “Our continent faces enormous problems and challenges, economic challenges, poverty and unemployment.
We have to face that and make sure that agenda 2063 becomes a reality for majority of our people.”
President Ramaphosa added that “We also face enormous infrastructure deficit which we need to address and silencing the guns on the continent has to be a very big issue which we hope that we will be able to get your support to tackle as we take on the seat to be chair of the African Union.”
At its meeting in Niamey, Niger in July 2019, ministers of the African Union (AU) Executive Council decided that the AU theme of the year 2020 would be “Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa’s Development”.
The Agenda 2063
As a flagship project of the AU’s Agenda 2063, Silencing the Guns by 2020, was adopted by the AU heads of state during the 50th anniversary of the OAU/AU in 2013.
According to the African Union, Agenda 2063 is “Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future.
It is the continent’s strategic framework that aims to deliver on its goal for inclusive and sustainable development and is a concrete manifestation of the pan-African drive for unity, self-determination, freedom, progress and collective prosperity pursued under Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance.”
It added that “the genesis of Agenda 2063 was the realisation by African leaders that there was a need to refocus and reprioritise Africa’s agenda from the struggle against apartheid and the attainment of political independence for the continent which had been the focus of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the precursor of the African Union; and instead to prioritise inclusive social and economic development, continental and regional integration, democratic governance and peace and security amongst other issues aimed at repositioning Africa to becoming a dominant player in the global arena”.
Source: Africafeeds.com
