12 May 2006: ISS Today: Assessing the APRM - Second South African Consultative Conference

12 May 2006: Assessing the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM): Second South African Consultative Conference

 

On Thursday 4 May, the recently erected Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication in dusty Kliptown, Soweto, brimmed with approximately 1400 delegates from government, business, civil society and the media who had come to drink of the fountain that inspired the birth of the Freedom Charter many decades ago. While the latter was primarily a way forward to the liberation of the oppressed South African masses, the recent assembly took place in the broader context of, and under the auspices of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development’s (Nepad’s) African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) – the new hope for the liberation of the African continent.

 

Also gracing the event were a number of government luminaries, including prominent Members of Cabinet whose presence was aggrandized by dozens of dutiful law enforcement agents, ‘invisible’ intelligence agents and computerized security checkpoints. The ‘bigwigs’ included a knowledgeable Finance Minister, Trevor Manuel, a critical Gauteng Premier, Mbhazima Shilowa, and a thought-provoking Trade and Industry Minister, Mandisi Mphahlwa.

 

Opening discussions took place in Plenary where the four technical support agencies – Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa), Institute for Economic (IERI) Research and Innovation, South African Institute of International Affairs, and the African Institute of Corporate Citizenship (AICC) - presented their respective reports. Each focused on one of the APRM’s four thematic areas: Political Governance, Socio-Economic Development, Economic Management and Governance, and Corporate Governance. Each presentation was followed by a response from a designated civil society representative, as well as a response from a relevant government minister. The technical reports will constitute the South African APRM Country Self Assessment Report.

 

At the conclusion of the rather long-winded, lackluster plenary proceedings delegates were finally afforded the opportunity to participate in Commissions, which also paralleled the APRM’s four thematic areas. Each Commission was steered by a chairperson with a representative from a technical support agency and a deputy government minister as resource persons. The inputs were expected to feed into discussions on a Programme of Action regarding matters arising from Country Self Assessment Report. Both the Programme of Action and the Report are expected to be submitted to the APRM Secretariat sometime in July this year.

 

The Commissions carried on to the next day and thereafter delegates re-convened at a Plenary where report-backs from the respective Commissions were given. The ceremony then concluded with a summary of what the conference had achieved and the challenges raised.

 

Central to the second national APRM consultative conference was to ensure that the ownership of the Peer Review process is inclusive of the South African public at large. However, because the process has taken place in a lighting-fast pace and under severe time constraints, the public was effectively barred from making well-considered inputs. Even the technical support agents admit that a considerable number of submissions were poorly structured, such that they were not relevant to their particular thematic focus areas. The insufficient time given to the public to make meaningful inputs into the APRM process makes it difficult to affirm with conviction that the Country Self-Assessment Report will be a reflection of the views of the South African public.

 

Andile Sokomani