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PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma has confirmed his withdrawal from this week’s European Union (EU)-Africa summit in Brussels, accusing the EU of treating Africans as subjects and wanting to decide who from Africa should be allowed to attend.“I think that time must pass wherein we are looked (on) as subjects, we are told who must come, who must not come . . .It is wrong and causes this unnecessary unpleasantness,” the president told the SABC on Sunday while campaigning in the Western Cape for the May 7 national elections.
“I thought the AU (African Union) and EU are equal organisations representing two continents, but there is not a single one of them who must decide for others,” Zuma said.
The Department of International Relations and Co-operation said on Sunday that Zuma would not participate in the April 2-3 summit and that International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane would lead South Africa’s delegation. Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies will also participate.
Yesterday, the EU’s ambassador in South Africa, Roeland van de Geer, said the organisation was surprised and disappointed, adding that Zuma had confirmed his participation in a letter on March 25.
“I think . . . his attendance would have increased the quality of the summit,” van de Geer said, adding that the EU expected at least 26 of the bloc’s 28 heads of state and government to be at the summit.
Diplomats doubted that Zimbabwe would be represented at the summit at any senior level. Zimbabwean officials last week accused the European Commission, host of the summit, of seeking to cherry-pick African participants. They referred to disagreements about the representation of Egypt, Eritrea, Sudan and the Western Sahara. There was also controversy in Zimbabwe about the nonissuance of a Belgian visa to President Robert Mugabe’s wife, Grace.
The EU relaxed political sanctions against Zimbabwe’s government earlier this year but travel bans against President Mugabe and his wife were maintained for another year.
President Mugabe was given a waiver to attend the key summit but Amai Mugabe was not, on the grounds that her presence was not essential.
South Africa’s government statement yesterday said the summit would allow Africa and Europe “to further strengthen political and socioeconomic co-operation between the two continents”.
The packed agenda, developed over months of discussions, includes peace and security, trade and investment, human development and the institutional and financial arrangements of the Africa-EU Partnership.
There was no word by yesterday on whether other African leaders would stay away.
Meanwhile, Sudan has accused the European Union of seeking to create a rift in African position after the EU’s rejection to invite the Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir to the AU-EU Summit scheduled to be held in Brussels on April 2-3.
The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Sunday that “as of 30 March 2014, the President of Sudan has not received an invitation to the Summit.”
The Sudanese MFA accused the EU of “evasive tactics” and “attempts to buy time” in order to cause a rift in the unified African position, through selective invitation to such forums.
Brussels has invited 90 European and African countries to attend the summit scheduled for next week. Approximately 65 heads of state will attend the event.
A spokesperson for the EU said earlier that the African Union has the right to invite the Sudanese president, although the EU declined to extend an invitation to him. The International Criminal Court issued two arrest warrants for Al-Bashir in 2009 and 2010 on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur region in Sudan. — BDLive-Middleeastmonitor.com.
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