New AU chair lauds President

Victoria Ruzvidzo in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Africa is proud of President Mugabe as an icon and will not listen to rantings by the West which seeks to demonise him, the incoming Africa Union chairman Alpha Conde has said.Addressing thousands of delegates who included heads of State and Government at the close of the 28th Summit here yesterday, Mr Conde, who is also the President of Guinea, described President Mugabe as a symbol of Pan Africanism saying Africa would not be swayed by the West.

“We want to thank President Mugabe who is the source of our pride despite what the western world thinks,” he said to applause from the delegates.

The President has remained steadfast on his stance that the West has no power over Zimbabwe and Africa at large.

He has resultantly been demonised by the West. Zimbabwe’s land reform has also worsened the West’s stance, but President Mugabe has remained resolute that the land belongs to black Zimbabweans and that African resources belong to Africans.

He was elected AU chairperson in 2015 and helped the continent become more assertive as he also continued on a path to ensure protection of the continent’s resources while encouraging beneficiation and value-addition as strategies that would bring real value to Africa’s resources.

In his acceptance speech when he was elected AU Chairman, President Mugabe insisted that Africa would remain the owner and beneficiary of her resources.

It is this stance that has caught the ire of the West, describing him as a liability to Africa, but the Africans themselves believe otherwise.

President Mugabe has endeared many Africa-wide as a Pan African par excellence as further endorsed by Mr Conde here yesterday.

He received a standing ovation when he handed over the chairmanship to Chad President Idriss Deby early last year as he called for Africa’s equal share in the United Nations.

In his closing remarks yesterday, Mr Conde said the paradox of a rich continent which is poor needed to be removed, referring to Africa’s vast resource base against high levels of poverty.

“Let’s improve the quality of our products,” he said.

The summit was described as a huge success after it managed to tackle issues such as restructuring of the AU, mapping strategies regarding its relations with the UN, the European Union and other external partners as the continent sought to claim its rightful place on the globe.

Major steps were also made towards the establishment of a free trade area to foster internal trade in face of growing competition and other challenges on the global market.

The controversial readmission of Morocco was generally viewed as targeted at bringing peace between the North African country and western Sahara which it occupied in 1975.