By Gregory Mthembu-Salter An international conference on sustaining Africa's democratic momentum got off to a dramatic start on Monday, with Professor Alpha Oumar Konaré, the chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, calling on ailing Guinean president Lansana Conté to leave office soon.
The democracy conference, which is co-sponsored by the AU, South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and International IDEA, is running for three days at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. The conference features a wide range of delegates including politicians, electoral agents, academics and civil society activists from around the African continent, plus delegations from Asia and South America, to enable 'South-South' dialogue on the issue.
Konaré, who had stopped off at the conference en route to celebrations in Ghana marking its 50th independence anniversary, began his key note address by calling on delegates to show their solidarity with Guinean workers who he said were bravely refusing to accept autocracy in their country.
“We have had enough of leaders in Africa saying they will do what they want..enough of the Idi Amin's, the Mengistu's. Their time is done!”, exclaimed Konaré, to applause from the floor.
Later, in a press conference, the AU chairperson expanded on his theme, saying the AU condemned the violence directed by Guinean troops against demonstrators and wanted an impartial inquiry into who was responsible. Konaré said he believed the job of the new Guinean prime minister was to organise a peaceful political transition and called on president Konté to “prepare his departure from power”.
Also addressing the conference, South African deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka told delegates Africa's democratisation was “old news”, and that the new story was the quality – or lack of it – of its democracy. Mlambo-Ngcuka went on to enumerate the African National Congress (ANC)-led government's achievements since the advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994, but in a candid moment said it had neglected what she called – borrowing from former president Nelson Mandela – a reconstruction and development programme for the nation's soul.
“We didn't think so many of our people would find it easy to kill for a cellphone, or rape a little girl”, said the vice-president, adding that the need somehow to reconstruct the damaged psyche of the nation was now high on the government's agenda.
Departing from her prepared text, and in apparent response to widespread international criticism of recent news that one ANC's fund raising strategy is to charge business people for access to government ministers, Mlambo-Ngcuka stated that the funding of political parties needed both clear guidelines and transparency, in order to remove ruling parties such as the ANC “from temptation”.
The Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) has in the past attempted in the courts to compel South African political parties to reveal their sources of funding, but the move was strongly resisted by the ANC.
IEC chairperson Brigalia Bam also picked up the theme, saying the influence on African politics of money and those with plenty of it needed strong regulation.
International IDEA secretary-general Vidar Helgesen (speech) called on delegates to conceive of deepening democracy in broad terms, going beyond merely improving the conduct of elections to strengthening popular participation in politics, which he said required inclusive constitution-making processes, greater women's representation in politics, and a reversal in popular perceptions about political parties, which Helgesen said were almost universally distrusted across the continent.
Gregory Mthembu-Salter is an independent writer on African political economy based in Cape Town, South Africa
The views expressed here are the author’s own, and do not necessarily represent the views of International IDEA, its Board or its Council members.
