Issued by African National Congress - Parliament
18 February 2003
Madame Speaker
Honourable members
Ladies and gentlemen
The President said: "… unlike the 20th, the 21st century should be a century for African Peace". This century for African Peace must begin with the creation of conditions for law and order and political stability.
Our understanding of security must change from old dichotomy of war or peace to the concept of human security. This means that there is less concentration on procurement of arms and deployment of troops. There is more about strengthening the social and environmental fabric of societies and improving their governance. Our own Dr Rocky Williams says: "To avoid instability, a human security policy must take into account a complex web of social, economic, environmental and political factors".
Madame Speaker, I submit that national security is meaningless if the concept does not encompass the preservation of liveable conditions on this earth.
This finds resonance in the objectives of the African Union Peace and Security Council, which are in fact in line with the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic and are echoed by the objectives of the UN Security Council.
In fact this is what Michael Renner, a human scientist, said in 1992: "A reasonable definition of security needs to encompass breathable air and potable water, safe from radioactive and toxic hazards, an intact climatic system, and the protection against the loss of topsoil that assures us of our daily bread. The well being of nations and their individual citizens depends as well on economic vitality, social justice, and ecological stability as it does on safety from foreign attack. Pursuing military security at the cost of these other factors is akin to dismantling a house to salvage materials to erect a fence around it". And this is what we saw in Afghanistan and are likely to see in Iraq.
South Africa has once again demonstrated her commitment to peaceful resolution of conflict. Facilitating the meeting to seek lasting solutions to the middle -east conflict and the intervention in the US-Iraq potential war cannot be down-played . These are significant political contributions this country has made. Those of us who love peace appreciate this and congratulate the president of this country.
The call for African century for Peace reflects the ideals and prayers of millions of Africans who have experienced different forms of conflict and deprivation. This statement reflects the aspirations of African women, when we cry out in anger, pain and despair; and call for peace, democracy and therefore for equality, development and prosperity.
There is no way we will say YES to the war in Iraq. No excuse, no explanation, no justification can convince us that to disarm one nation all other nations must be threatened by the spectre of war. No single individual or nation must have the power to threaten the dreams of millions across world youth, the dignity of humanity, as we know it, and the personal safety of women and children all over the world. This in no way means that as women we support the manufacture, the purchase, the stockpiling or the use of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq must disarm if it is found to be possession of such weapons.
The committees of defence will receive a briefing from the SA Bio- Chemical weapons inspection team that recently went to Iraq, next week.
The President spoke about the need to regulate the security apparatus better to ensure that they do what they were set up to do. This means we must know what they are supposed to do and must be able to hold them to account. The security of our borders and rural communities cannot be compromised.
While some commando units do sterling work to protect life and property of communities within their geographic responsibilities, some have been cause for concern. The big question has been whether we should not consider alternative means to secure the rural communities better and appropriately, while we release the reserve forces to carry out their Constitutional obligations.
Military histories and culture, race, gender, and age will be some of the criteria we will consider for the transformation and rejuvenation of the reserves forces. The defence committees initiated the process, which led to the search to resolve this matter. We will continue to advocate for more resources to go the preparation of the reserves. The Constitution, the white paper on defence and the defence act, spell out our national and international obligations. These we can only achieve if we begin to give better attention to the reserve forces.
Madame Speaker, national studies have shown us the levels of skill we posses as South Africa. The United Nations Human Index Report of 1999/2000 showed our critical skill weakness and that we needed to prioritise the skilling of our nation.
Whereas, members of the SANDF are considered skilled in their own core function, the service corps was intended to re-skill those that are intended for separation. We must give more attention to this programme this year.
A lot has been said about the age and health profile of the SANDF, sometimes with exaggerations, and a restructured service corps will not only contribute to re-skilling members of the defence force but all government departments could participate towards a skilled and prosperous SA
The President encouraged this parliament to ratify the Protocols on the Peace and Security Council and the African Parliament.
Madame Speaker, this is exciting. Article 3(f), refers to the promotion of peace, security, and stability in the continent; articles 3(c; d; e; g; h; I; k; l; and m) all state the intention to integrate policies, mechanisms and systems.
A quick look at NEPAD also shows that it is structured into three components: namely
1. Conditions for sustainable development
2. Sectoral priorities
3. Monitoring of resources
Madame Speaker, both structures place emphasis on regional integration.
The focus of the Peace and Security Council will be to
"Anticipate and prevent conflict... where conflicts have occurred, the Peace and Security Council shall have the responsibility to undertake peace-making and peace-building functions for the resolution of these conflicts".
So, the attempt by this government to prevent the escalation of violent conflict in Zimbabwe is in line with the aspiration of the Council. Protection against loss of life and property rather than taking sides is not the issue here. Is it not time for all of us to constructively look for solutions and stop this bickering?
The protocol enjoins us to harmonise and coordinate efforts to combat international terrorism. It makes a call for the promotion of democratic practices, good governance, the rule of law, protection of human rights, fundamental freedoms, respect for the sanctity of human life and humanitarian law.
For us, the need to develop a common defence policy for the continent, is good news. For we have been calling for this initiative for years. This will add to better coordinaton and forge trust among the nations of Africa. This will make mandatory the standardization of command systems, policies and equipment. This in turn will mean less need for individual nations to arm against others and therefore better targeted social spending.
Many years ago, Mwalimu Nyerere, Dr Kaunda and Sir Seretse Khama formed an informal but vibrant forum. Samora Machel and Agostinho Neto joined the group later and they went on to form the Front Line States to help speed the eradication of colonialist and racist regimes. Much later, Zimbabwe and Namibia joined them. SADCC was born in 1980 to coordinate economic cooperation to reduce dependence on Apartheid SA. A few years ago, we celebrated the decade of transformation of SADCC into SADC, which recognized the inter-relationship between economic development, peace and stability. That is why the founders expanded the mandate of SADC to include political, military and security matters. So, in 1992,SADC leaders committed member states to peace, and security, human rights, democracy, the rule of law and peaceful settlement of disputes.
At the conference of players and scholars, late last year in Maputo, we examined why the noble ideals of the region had not been achieved.
The establishment of the AU Peace and Security Council means that we must look at existing regional instruments, analyse them and make recommendations. The protocols for the OPDS were only signed in 2001 even though the decision to establish the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security had been taken in 1996!
The OPDS has three main problems, I think,
1. the annual rotation of the chairperson means the institutional memory of the Organ is seriously affected.
2. no provision was made for administrative capacity, using the ISDSC as the secretariat has not be successful given the "informality" of the past
3. a plan of action for the Organ is outstanding
Perhaps these weaknesses are a throw-back from the informal days of the FLS and the Inter-state Defence and Security Committee as well as the political alignment of those days. Having concluded its' mandate FLS closed shop in 1994, but the ISDSC continues to function until it hands over to the OPDS.
SADC players, academia and civil society have identified key threats to security to be, among others,
The launch of the International Law Enforcement Academy in Botswana in 2001 has allowed for some regional training to take place and for the regional association of police commissioners to structure programmes that prioritise regional needs. There is still need to work on common approaches to cross-border crimes. There is need to share legislation and practices. This is especially important for the region to address the issue of small arms. South Africa promised in the white paper for defence to help establish a regional register for all arms. We have yet to do this.
Although everybody agrees to the new African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance Programme for the military, which should focus us on regional training needs and priorities, nothing is coming of it because of the non-functioning Organ for Politics, Defence and Security. This then forces the region to continue to work within bilateral agreements. I am not saying there is anything wrong with bilaterals, only that we still have no idea of the economies of shared training and other training needs which we could by now have identified had we begun regional integration of personnel, equipment and systems. Some governments in the region derive more than 60% of the national budgets from foreign donors. We need to consider what the financial implications of joint training are going to be and therefore what contributions we can look at Africa to have a standing force of her own.
In short, comrade President, we need to restructure the OPDS to see it functioning.