The battle for the chair of the African Union (AU) is hotting up amid allegations by Sadc countries, backing South African Home Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, that incumbent Jean Ping, who is seeking re-election, is abusing office resources and sowing seeds of division among AU member states.
In a statement during the continental bodys executive council meeting at the 19th AU summit in Addis Ababa on Thursday, Botswana Foreign Affairs minister Phandu Skelemani said Southern Africa was alarmed by Pings response to an article in a South African publication titled At Last, SA may get its woman into AU post.
The Southern Region bloc has demanded an apology from Ping.
On Wednesday Ping released a statement where he said he was annoyed by media reports that he was receiving funding from France.
In the statement, Ping said the media reports were a whole strategy to tarnish my hard-earned reputation and destabilise my campaign for re-election as Chairperson of the AU Commission.
It is also, no doubt, designed to cast some doubts about my strength of character and to undermine support from a wide range of member states keen to re-elect me.
However, Sadc reportedly reacted angrily during the closed door sessions of the executive council meeting comprised mainly of African states foreign affairs ministers. Skelemani said: Our main concern, Chairperson, is that in responding to a media article of a personal nature, the AU Chairperson chose to use the AU resources as clearly indicated by the use of the official letterhead and the official website to distribute his statement to media houses.
By so doing, this makes his response an official statement of the African Union. Is this part of his mandate as the chairperson of our organisation? Certainly not.
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Ping in his statement said he had not failed to manage the situations in Ivory Coast and Libya, instead said it is well known that it is the Government of South Africa which impeded Ecowas efforts to settle the Ivory Coast crisis timeously and the same government that voted in favour of resolution 1973 that authorised the bombing of Libya.
Skelemani said: By divulging such information, this has a potential of sowing seeds of animosity and division among AU member states.
It is our considered view, Chairperson, that this conduct is in violation of the provisions and spirit of the Statutes of the AU Commission, he said.
Ping was accused of violating Article 4(1) under Obligations in the Statutes of the Commission, which stipulate that members of the Commission shall refrain from any action which may reflect adversely on their position as international officials responsible only to the Union.
In this regard, the conduct by the Chairperson of the AU, namely abuse of AU resources, attack on and divulging information of a Member State is unprecedented, and can bring disrepute to the integrity of the African Union.
This, therefore, calls for an apology on his part, and retraction of the statement through the same medium used.
