AFRICA : ETHIOPIA : 1ST FEMALE HEAD OF AFRICAN UNION

CISA NEWS REPORT:
Dlamini-Zuma
ADDIS ABABA, July 17, 2012 (CISA) -South African Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was elected on Sunday July 15 to become the first female head of the African Union (AU) Commission, ending a bruising leadership battle that had threatened to divide and weaken the organisation.
Cheers broke out at the AU’s soaring, Chinese-built steel and glass headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa as supporters of President Jacob Zuma’s ex-wife celebrated her victory over incumbent Jean Ping of Gabon.
“We made it!” a grinning Zimbabwean delegate shouted, reflecting the strong support Dlamini-Zuma’s candidacy had received from fellow members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Ping, who had served in the AU post since 2008, was largely supported by French-speaking African states.
According to the Mail and Guardian, the 63-year-old’s appointment, who previously served as minister of health and foreign affairs, will add to the global diplomatic clout of an African state which is already the continent’s largest economy.
As head of the organization’s executive arm, she faces immediate challenges as the AU tries to gain UN Security Council backing for a military intervention in northern Mali, where local and foreign al-Qaeda-linked jihadists seized control after a destabilizing coup in the southern capital Bamako.
The Mali crisis, along with an army putsch in Guinea-Bissau and border clashes in April between Sudan and South Sudan have blotted Africa’s advances in recent years towards better governance and stability, accompanied by buoyant growth.
Dlamini-Zuma had to undergo three voting rounds before Ping (69) was eliminated. A final confidence vote of 37 in favour gave her the 60% majority she needed to be elected.
The contest to head the commission of the 54-member AU had been deadlocked since a previous vote at a January summit ended in stalemate. The impasse had persisted through a summit of AU heads of state held in Addis Ababa at the weekend.
It prompted the AU’s rotating chairperson, Benin President Boni Yayi, to warn African heads of state that failure by the continental body to resolve the leadership deadlock would divide it and undermine its credibility in the world.
“Now we move on to unite the African continent, we unite everybody through Madame Zuma,” Lindiwe Zulu, Zuma’s advisor on international affairs, told reporters.
“She won, I congratulate her,” Ping said as he left the AU headquarters among a small crowd of well-wishers.
At a news conference earlier in the day before the vote, Dlamini-Zuma sought to dispel fears that South Africa might seek to use the AU post to try to dominate the continent.
“South Africa is not going to come to Addis Ababa to run the AU. It is Dlamini-Zuma who is going to come to make a contribution,” she told reporters.
Protests outside the venue in the Ethiopian capital have seen 72 arrests, and some 200 injured. Those arrested, according to police, were Islamists demonstrating against perceived liberal implementation of religious laws.
Mr Erastus Mwencha, a Kenyan, was elected to deputize Dlamini-Zuma.
SHARED FROM CISA NEWS

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