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AU COMMISION CHAIRPERSON, DR. NKOSAZANA DLAMINI ZUMA STATEMENT AT THE OPENING SESSION OF THE 4TH JOINT RETREAT BETWEEN THE PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVES’ COMMITTEE (PRC) AND THE AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION (AUC),

HAWASSA, ETHIOPIA, 14-15 APRIL 2014

Your Excellency Mr. Ato Dessie Dalkie, President of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State;
Your Excellencies the entire leadership of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State;
Your Excellency, the Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mr Erastus Mwencha;
Fellow Commissioners of the African Union Commission;
Your Excellency Chairperson of the PRC and Excellencies, Ambassadors, Members of the Permanent Representatives Committee;
Your Excellency Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, CEO of NEPAD (and the Facilitator of our Retreat)
Senior Managers and staff of the AUC, Staff of Embassies, and invited guests
Ladies and gentlemen

I am most honored, to speak in Hawassa today, the Capital City of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State, on the shores of Lake Hawassa. We thank the people of Hawassa and the Southern Nations for the hospitality extended to us, since we arrived in the city. We hope the time we will spend with you will be enriching and leave indelible memories to all of us.
I am particularly pleased that we are gathered here at His Excellency Prime Minister Haile Mariam Desalegn’s home region, a region that has become a model of integration and unity in diversity.
Ethiopia is amongst the fastest growing economies on the African continent, including the largest producer of coffee, and with growing investments in infrastructure.
2014 is the African Year of Agriculture and Food Security. The advances made by this region and Ethiopia more generally in agriculture is critical to the agricultural revolution needed in the continent.
In addition, it is part of Africa’s great potential for tourism, such as the beauty of Lake Hawassa and surrounds. If we continue to develop our infrastructure, we can attract many more tourists than we do today. We must also invest and continue to preserve our cultural heritage, in all its richness and diversity, because this is part of our strength as a continent. We salute the region for its efforts in this regard.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen
The very reason for the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity 50 years ago on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, hosted by The Emperor Haile Selassie, was to liberate Africa from the dehumanizing yoke of slavery, dispossession, colonialism and apartheid. The vision, solidarity, commitment and bravery of those forebearers triumphed and because of them we are here today.
Our forebears also strived for continental unity based on the full political, social and economic integration and development of Africa. Although Africa has made strides towards the fulfillment of its integration, much more still remain to be done.
To achieve the vision of Agenda 2063 we have just launched, looking at the African Agenda for the next fifty years, we will have to work together spurred by the values of solidarity, self-reliance and united in our diversity.
Africa’s strength lies in its diversity. Each country’s unique history, culture, resources and needs contributes to the success of the continent’s development and integration. Our interdependency and diversity means we need to invest in all our people, empower all the women, ensure that all girls and boys attend schools, and that we develop our young people.
It also require dependable infrastructure to build our economies. Integrated infrastructure development is one of the most important investments for economic transformation, the promotion of intra-african trade and for investment and integration.
We are therefore gathered here as the African Union Commission and the Permanent Representative Committee of Ambassadors accredited to the African Union to jointly take stock of how far the continent has progressed on its integration and development agenda. We will collectively identify strengths, and challenges, and consider ways to move the process forward as we stand on the threshold of the next fifty years.
We are all bound by the abiding commitment to the Pan African Vision of building “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena”.
Let it not be said that we lacked imagination, innovation and determination to make the potential of a United Africa a reality. I wish this retreat all success and we look forward to a pleasant stay in Hawassa.
I can assure you, Your Excellency, Mr. President that a lot of colleagues will come back for leisure at a different time.
Thank you.

STATEMENT BY H. E. DR. NKOSAZANA DLAMINI ZUMA
CHAIRPERSON OF THE AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION

ON THE OCCASION OF
THE COMMEMORATION OF THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE

AFRICAN UNION CONFERENCE CENTRE, ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA
11 APRIL 2014

Your Excellency, Dr. Tedros Adhanom, Foreign Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Your Excellency, Prof. Joseph Nsengimana, the Ambassador of the Republic of Rwanda
Excellencies, Chairperson of the Permanent Representatives Committee and of the Peace and Security Council
Commissioner for Political Affairs, Dr. Aisha L. Abdullahi
Excellencies, Ambassadors and Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Members of the Rwanda community
Distinguished religious leaders
Commissioners, Directors and AU Staff
Ladies and Gentlemen;

The commemoration of twenty years since the Rwanda Genocide is in remembrance of an event of great tragedy that will affect the people of Rwanda and all Africans for generations to come.

When we listen to the stories of survivors they are heart-breaking.

Within one hundred days, more than 800,000 men, women and children were abandoned to systematic and most callous of deaths, as long-time neighbours, colleagues and friends turned against one another. Over a quarter of million women and girls were raped, and many infected with HIV/AIDS.

At least 100,000 children were separated from their families or orphaned. Place of sanctuaries such as churches, military bases, hospitals and other public buildings were turned into slaughterhouses. The aftermath of this great tragedy on African soil was a wasteland and a shattered people.

Twenty years later, it is apt that the commemorations are held under the theme Kwibuka: remember, unite, renew.

As we gather today in solidarity with Rwandan people we remember those who lost their lives, and those who lost parents and grandparents, children and siblings, their spouses, aunts and uncles, friends and neighbours, often whole families, villages and neighbourhoods.

We must also remember, as we again pledge Never again what led up to these tragic events. The roots lay in the colonial history of divide and rule; the continuation of treating certain groups in society as the Other; the earlier attempts at ethnic cleansing; the discrimination and hate speech shortly before; the systematic planning to exterminate the Tsutsis and anyone opposing this; the complicity (either by omission or commission) of the international community, including our own organisation and the failure by all of us to intervene as the massacres unfolded before our eyes.

It indeed became a case of the triumph of evil, as good men and women did nothing, until the liberation of Rwanda by the RPF, which put a stop to the slaughter – a long 100 days later.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

We remember, as President Kagame said so eloquently a few days ago at in Kigali:
“Rwanda was supposed to be a failed state. We could have become a permanent U.N. protectorate, with little hope of ever recovering our nationhood.

We could have allowed the country to be physically divided, with groups deemed incompatible assigned to different corners.

We could have been engulfed in a never-ending civil war with endless streams of refugees and our children sick and uneducated.

But we did not end up like that. What prevented these alternative scenarios was the choices of the people of Rwanda.”

Rwanda indeed made the choices to unite, to involve all its people – men and women, young and old, victim and perpetrator, Hutu, Tutsi and Twa - in the process of justice, reconciliation and healing, and to build a country that belongs to all.

This is not easy, but it had to be done. It is not a journey of two decades. The country, its leadership and people will have to continue with this journey, climb a hundred more hills, in memory of those who died, for the survivors and more importantly for future generations.

Rwanda, twenty years later, shows us the triumph of the human spirit, in the rebuilding of its health, and education systems, in reducing poverty, in its efforts to diversify its economy and in its fast economic growth of the past decade.

I don’t believe this would have been possible or the country would have come this far, without the conscious choice made to do this by empowering women and girls. Rwanda today is a lodestar not only for Africa, but the world in terms of gender equality, even though they still need to do more.

Unless we remember the lessons of Rwanda, across the continent, in all countries we will not live up to our pledge of Never again. These lessons are embedded in our Pan African values of solidarity and unity, and in the African Union principle of non-indifference.

It is part of our strategic orientation for the future, to build inclusive, tolerant and democratic societies; to fight against impunity; to invest in our young people; to promote people’s and human rights; to empower our women and fight gender-based violence; to build accountable, democratic and developmental government and institutions; and ensure the human security of all Africa’s people.

As we therefore reflect in the coming months on how to silence the guns by 2020, as we take forward the AU Human Rights Memorial Project and as we finalise our Agenda 2063, we must renew our determination, and make the choice: that Africa shall be peaceful; that we will integrate; that we shall be prosperous and that we will never again tolerate genocide on African soil.

We must also be honest with ourselves as the Peace and Security Council reflects this month on how to silence the guns by 2020. We must address the question whether we have a plan of what to do when such situations arise again. As I stand here, I am not confident that we have the capacity to respond immediately to prevent the killings before it starts, and to intervene quickly to stop mass atrocities and genocide.

Let me conclude with the words of the great Pan African, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela that he wrote in Long walk to Freedom:
No one is born hating another person because of the colour of her skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

I thank you

Closing remarks of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma to the 4th Africa-European Union Summit

Brussels, 4 April 2014

 
Excellency, Chairperson of the European Council and

Excellency, Chairperson of the African Union

Excellency, Chairperson of the European Union Commission

Excellencies, Heads of State and Government

Excellency, Secretary General of the United Nations,

Excellencies, EU and AU Commissioners

Leaders of Delegations and Ministers

Ladies and Gentlemen

African and European leaders have spoken. We have demonstrated that there is much that we can and must do together to confront common challenges and take advantage of opportunities and to secure peace and security and achieve rapid, resilient and inclusive as well as sustainable social and economic development for our people.

We have come together not simply as neighbors or because of our shared history. We have come together because we face common challenges and a shared future as peoples of one planet earth that invites all global citizens to pay attention to sustainability considerations.

We are all agreed that our people must be at the centre of our joint endeavor and especially women and youth.
There is a great deal of convergence of how to confront challenges to peace and security and sustainable development as well as the need for strong institutional mechanism, to address root causes and a rapid response mechanism. We in Africa greatly appreciate the support from Europe through the Peace Support Fund. Africa remains determined to silence all guns by 2020.

We have committed ourselves on the need for transformation of African economy through investment in industry, agriculture and infrastructure and through access to finance, markets and transfer of technology.

In order to take advantage of the demographic dividends Africa, seeks support to impart skills to the youthful population and access to means of production and markets. In addressing the phenomenon of human migration we must face up to the push and pull factors.

To boost intra-Africa trade, create regional value chains, and encourage private investments we are committed to developing a Continental a Free a Trade Area by building on achievements of the Regional Economic Communities.

Lest we are misunderstood. Africa is very much alive to the reality that the new trade regime under the WTO calls for reciprocity, which takes into account developmental needs of Africa. We therefore call on you as partners to ensure that EPAs do not frustrate Africa's integration and development agenda.

Partnerships are always stronger when founded on mutual trust goodwill and respect. We trust that our long-standing partnership will remain guided by these values.

In conclusion, a special thanks to the European Union for the vibrant side events, with civil society and especially the engagements with young people from the two continents and the private sector.

Our appreciation to the EU and the Kingdom of Belgium for hosting this Summit and for all who attended this 4th EU-Africa Summit.

I thank you.