Ramaphosa hands over AU chairmanship to DRC President Felix Tshisekedi.

By Lehlohonolo Lehana.

Photo Credit: GCIS.

President Cyril Ramaphosa handed over the AU chairmanship to DRC President Felix Tshisekedi during the organisation’s virtual 34th Ordinary Session of the Assembly and Heads of States.

The AU theme for 2021 would be “Arts, Culture, and Heritage: Levers for Building the Africa We Want”.

During South Africa’s tenure as chair, the AU achieved key priorities as outlined in its programme for 2020. This included the historic advent – on January 1, 2021 – of free trade within the African Continental Free Trade Area, the presidency said.

Under Ramaphosa’s leadership and “resolute support” of the bureau of the heads of state and government of the AU and the AU secretariat, various initiatives were undertaken to counter the Covid-19 pandemic, including:

– The establishment of the AU Covid-19 response fund;

– The establishment of the Africa task force for coronavirus (AFTCOR);

– The partnership to accelerate Covid-19 testing in Africa (PACT);

– The consortium for Covid-19 clinical vaccine trials (CONCVACT);

– The appointment of special envoys to mobilise international support for the continental fight against Covid-19;

– The establishment of the African medical supplies platform (AMSP): a platform developed to assist the AU member states to tackle issues on the supply side of the continent’s response to Covid-19 and access to medical supplies and equipment;

– The establishment of the Covid-19 African vaccine acquisition task team (AVATT) in support of the Africa vaccine strategy. The task team was mandated to secure the necessary resources for achieving Africa’s Covid-19 vaccine strategy which aimed to vaccinate a minimum of 60 percent of Africa’s population and to accelerate the arrangements of financing for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines for the continent.

– The initiative of the chairperson to engage international partners and financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, European Union (EU), G20 member states and others to support the issue of debt relief for African countries whose economies had been devastated by the pandemic;

– The development of the vaccine strategy for the continent which was endorsed by the AU bureau of assembly on August 20, 2020.

During the 34th ordinary session, the assembly is expected to consider some of the continent’s pertinent issues related to the selection of the senior leadership of the AU Commission.

Ramaphosa told the bloc’s summit that even though the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have deployed significant financial resources for the coronavirus outbreak response, more needed to be done.

“Assess to concessional finance will remain crucial as countries rebuild their economies,” Ramaphosa told the summit.

“An injection of fresh resources by the IMF through reallocating and issuing new special drawing rights, with bias to the developing world, will correct the glaring inequality in fiscal stimulus measures between advanced economies and the rest of the world.”

Concessional loans generally offer terms that are more favourable to those available on the open market.

The precarious debt burdens of a number of African nations have worsened due to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among a population of 1.3 billion, Africa has so far reported more than 3.6 million coronavirus infections and over 94 000 deaths, according to a Reuters tally. South Africa has recorded the most infections of any African nation.

While wealthier nations push ahead with mass vaccination drives, only a few African countries have started vaccinations. The 55-member African Union hopes to see 60% of the continent’s population immunised in the next three years.

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