5. The opening ceremony was presided over by Mr. Cheik Tidjane Gadio, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Senegal, in his capacity as the Chairman of the Bureau of the 75^th Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers. After calling the meeting to order, he invited the guest of honour, Mr. Jacob Zuma, Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, to formally open the 76^th Ordinary Session of the Council.

6. In his opening statement, Mr. Jacob Zuma, Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa and Guest of Honour, extended a warm welcome to all the Ministers and their delegations to Durban and South Africa, on the eve of the 38^th OAU Summit and the launch of the African Union. Recalling the immense support extended to the freedom struggle in the Southern region, the Vice-President expressed the delight his country to host the Council and Summit of the OAU; which had always constituted a source of great hopes for the African people. The birth of the African Union therefore, should be a continuity in terms of the objectives of the Pan African movement that had been the origin of the OAU.

7. Referring to the primary objectives that had prompted the establishment of the OAU (end to colonialism and apartheid; African unity and solidarity) the Vice-President affirmed that the OAU had registered great achievements in that regard. However, the foundation that had been laid by the OAU needed to be consolidated, in order to enhance the continent’s effort ain facing the challenges of the present time, in particular, conflicts and globalization.

8. On the conflict situation in certain regions of the continent, the Vice-President referred to the progress and positive developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and Burundi; and urged that more effort be devoted to dealing with the other remaining conflicts, including Madagascar on which the OAU had taken a land mark decision. Such effort should emphasize the need to strengthen the democratisation process and good governance throughout the continent.

9. Vice-President Zuma then turned to the issues of social and economic development and expressed concern over the widening gap between the rich North and poor South, which had been exacerbated by globalisation. The low and declining levels of income in the South, particularly in Africa, coupled with its low percentage share in world trade pointed to the need for the developed countries to take urgent measures to tackle the critical constraints impeding Africa’s development; in particular debt cancellation, increased resource flows (ODA and FDI) and access to markets and technologies.

10. It was in that context that the Vice-President referred to NEPAD (a programme of the African Union) as constituting a comprehensive response to the challenges facing Africa, with the objective of accelerating the achievement of sustained socio-economic development, which the African Union has been established to promote.

11. Mr. Zuma then outlined the salient features of NEPAD, and indicated the participation of the Civil Society Organizations, as well as the involvement, support and commitment of the G8 to the programme.

12. In conclusion, Vice-President Zuma commended African leaders for their role in promoting NEPAD in and outside the continent, and the commitment they have secured from the G8; particularly to tackle Africa’s debt, including cancellation, as well as HIV/AIDS pandemic; support for the democratization process and good governance, peace and stability throughout the continent. He affirmed that with the African Union and good leadership, there was a firm foundation for a great African future.

13. In his reply, Mr. Ali Said Abdalla, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Eritrea, on behalf of Council, expressed his gratitude to the Government and people of South Africa for the warm welcome and hospitality extended to all the delegations since their arrival in Durban, as well as for the excellent facilities provided which, he said, not only reflected the level of remarkable technological development achieved by South Africa, but also testified to its commitment to provide an enabling environment for this all-important meeting.

14. The Minister also expressed, on behalf of all his colleagues, his thanks and profound gratitude to H.E. Cheick Tidane Gadio, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Senegal and outgoing Chairman, for the able manner in which he had steered the deliberations of the Council. He paid tribute to his capacity to face up to all the challenges in the interest of the unity of Africa, adding that the 76^th Session of the Council of Ministers was of vital importance in that it was taking place on the territory of South Africa, known for its heroic struggle against colonialism and apartheid, culminating in its accession to independence about a decade ago. He called on the other peoples of Africa to draw lessons from the South African experience, in their struggle to regain their human dignity.

15. The Minister further stated that the 76th session of the Council devoted to the launching of the African Union must lay the foundations for addressing the numerous challenges that Africa must continue to face, such as peace, security, unconstitutional changes of government, fight against pandemics and called on all countries for collective action.

16. Recalling the heroism of the people of South Africa and their efforts to promote unity and reconciliation, Honourable Ali Said Abdalla appealed to the African youth to take up the challenges and consolidate the foundations laid, thanks to the vision of the founding fathers of the OAU and the sacrifice made by Africans in their struggle against domination.

17. Referring to the issue of the African Union, the Minister said that it provided all possible hopes for the Continent to get rid of the problems of poverty and disease. He called on his colleagues to be firm in that objective of the African Union and reaffirmed his country’s commitment to spare no effort to ensure respect for Africa’s dignity. In this connection, he informed Council of the imminent resolution of the crisis between Ethiopia and Eritrea through a peaceful, legal solution. He thanked the Organization of African Unity, the United Nations, the European Union and the international community for their efforts towards the settlement of that conflict. He appealed to them to persevere in their efforts with a view to implementing the decision effectively.

18. Concluding, Mr. Ali Said Abdalla referred to the happy coincidence between the 76^th session on the launching of the African Union and the commemoration of the 90^th Anniversary of the African National Congress (ANC) and availed himself of the opportunity to congratulate the leaders and members of that movement.

19. Mr. Amara Essy, OAU Secretary General first of all thanked the outgoing Chairman of Council for his support to the General Secretariat in the implementation of the Lusaka Decision. He also expressed his gratitude to the Government and people of South Africa for the warmth of their hospitality and for the excellent facilities placed at the disposal of the Secretariat to ensure the success of the various OAU meetings.

20. With regard to the activities carried out by the General Secretariat during the period under review, Mr. Amara Essy gave an overview of the political issues addressed and the efforts deployed to find solutions to the numerous problems confronting the continent. He briefed Council on the democratic elections in The Comoros, which was the crowning achievement of the reconciliation process initiated by the OAU. In that connection, he hailed the presence of Mr. Mohamed Souef Amir at the Council and thanked the countries of the region and all OAU partners, for their contribution to the settlement of the Comorian crisis.

21. Mr. Essy then recalled the principles that had guided the OAU in its search for a solution to the crisis in Madagascar, while referring to the position taken by the Central Organ which had recommended a commitment, on the part of the leaders of Madagascar, to find ways and means of peacefully resolving the crisis. With respect to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Secretary General commended the Government of that country, and all the Parties concerned, for their commitment to implement the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement. He further commended Sir Ketumile Masire, the Facilitator of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, and the South African Government for its political commitment and financial support. He assured the Council that the General Secretariat, in collaboration with the Facilitator, and the Parties, would continue to work tirelessly towards a solution to the other outstanding problems.

22. The Secretary General then recalled the insurgency and destabilizing campaign being waged against the people of Liberia by the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). He detailed the actions carried out by the General Secretariat in that regard, and called upon Council to appeal to the United Nations Security Council to lift the sanctions imposed on Liberia. He then referred to the situation in The Sudan, Somalia, Burundi, Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo as highlighted in the Introductory Note. With regard to the democratisation process, Mr. Essy commended the people of Mali and Sierra Leone for holding democratic elections, in their respective countries. He called upon to Member States and donors to extend maximum support towards the reconstruction of Sierra Leone.

23. With regard to enhancing the socio-economic development on the continent, the Secretary General recommended the greater involvement of the youth and women in that endeavour. After enumerating the economic and social problems facing Africa, Mr. Essy welcomed the advent of NEPAD as a programme of the Union, initiated by Africans for Africans. He informed Council of various meetings organised within the context of that Programme, stating that the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee would meet in Durban, before the Assembly of Heads of State and Government.

24. The Secretary General also addressed issues related to the pandemics ravaging the continent, especially HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and reviewed the efforts being made to adopt a collective approach in the search for remedies to these diseases. He further briefed Council on the Ministerial Conference on Employment Promotion and Poverty Alleviation in Africa, organised at the invitation of the Government of Faso.

25. Mr. Amara Essy expressed satisfaction at the results of the Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa (CSSDCA) as well as the OAU/Civil Society Conference. Concluding, he commended the Governments of South Africa and Nigeria for making a generous financial contribution of US$500,000.00 each, in support of the CSSDCA programmes and called upon other Member States to contribute towards the realisation of these programmes.

26. The Executive Secretary of ECA, H.E. K.Y. Amoako outlined the progress made by Africa at major development events and meetings over the past twelve months. In particular, he highlighted the outcome of the Doha WTO meeting where hard work and excellent preparation by Africa had paid off. There were pro-development achievements on Public Health issues, and on trade-related intellectual property rights. There was progress on agricultural trade, despite serious slippage, due to huge new US subsidies to its wealthy farmers. He noted that Africa however had made little headway on textiles and that environmental and hygiene standards had to be resolved. Although the results at Doha were mixed, he said they were a lot better than many previous WTO meetings.

27. The Executive Secretary further stated that in Monterrey, there had been further progress as the developed and developing country leaders had agreed that the highest priority for developing countries was good governance. They agreed that those economies had to be part of the global system, and that aid should be of a higher quality. They also agreed that additional resources, estimated by experts at $50 billion per year, should be provided to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

28. Council was informed that both the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (USA) had made commitments to increase their aid levels by a combined total of $12 billion per year, to meet the goal of $50 billion. Though inadequate, the increase marked a reversal of aid trends. On Africa’s share of this increase, Mr. Amoako referred to the G8 Summit in Canada where the G-8 leaders had agreed that under conditions of good performance, Africa could expect half of the increase, bringing the Continent’s aid back to 1990 levels.

29. Mr. Amoako then highlighted the progress represented by the adoption of a G-8 Africa Action Plan as a framework to support NEPAD. Under the Plan, the G-8 has agreed that each of them would establish enhanced partnerships with countries "whose performance reflects the NEPAD commitments". They have also agreed on a goal for duty-free and quota free market access for all products originating from the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), many of which are in Africa. They have added $1 billion to fully fund the Highly-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Trust Fund and agreed to increase the use of grants, rather than loans, for the poorest debt-vulnerable countries. The G-8 has also agreed to finish work on a joint plan with Africa by 2003 to develop African capabilities to undertake peace support operations, including at the regional level.

30. The Executive Secretary also looked forward to the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, which would deal with measures to accelerate implementation of the environmental agenda, established in the Rio Summit a decade ago, and the achievement of the Millennium Development goals for human development adopted at the Millennium Summit. He stressed that sustainable development was the merger of human well-being and natural resource stewardship, and that Africa’s stakes were highest in the upcoming Summit because its sustainability issues were more acute than other regions.

31. The Executive Secretary then drew attention to the negative trends that could affect the achievement of the poverty reduction, education and health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially those emanating from HIV/AIDS and the degradation of the environment and climate. He called for commitment from key governments to back the Kyoto Climate Change and other vital agreements. He also called on Africa to work hard to reverse very serious environmental damage affecting Africa’s precious resources.

32. Finally, the Executive Secretary offered his views on the post Johannesburg agenda. He stressed that NEPAD was not about increasing the continent’s external dependency but about greater self-reliance if Africa was to make it work. He stressed the importance of Governance in the NEPAD Programme, and highlighted the NEPAD Declaration on Democracy and Governance as a far-reaching and powerful statement. He pointed out that the challenge was in the implementation. He was appreciative of the African Peer Review Mechanism proposed by the NEPAD Implementation Committee for a periodic review of political, economic and corporate governance status in Member States. As a self-monitoring mechanism for collective action and mutual learning, Mr Amoako was confident that it would foster an enabling environment for the private sector, with the potential to unlock resources from this sector to generate economic growth and help overcome poverty. He was also confident that by demonstrating that Africans had the political will, and commitment to hold themselves accountable to mutually agreed codes and standards of governance, the African Peer Review held the promise of being instrumental for effective partnerships with the international community.

33. Finally, the Executive Secretary noted the importance` of the African Union in Africa’s efforts to overcome its developmental challenges and assured Council that the ECA would contribute to make the African Union a major success.

34. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Senegal, Mr. Cheick Tidiane Gadio, in turn, expressed his gratitude to the government and people of South Africa for all the arrangements made to ensure the success of the Durban meetings. He also thanked his colleagues for the honour and confidence conferred on his country in electing him to chair the 75^th Session of the Council of Ministers. The Minister reaffirmed Senegal’s readiness to work alongside other African countries, within the framework of the African Union, to make Africa come of age, and to ensure its political, economic, cultural and social renaissance, thereby guaranteeing its integration into the globalization process. He then enumerated some of the challenges to be faced at the political, economic front as well as the level of fundamental rights and freedoms.

35. The Minister expressed the strong hope that the provisions of Decision 142 would be extended to include countries which hold non-transparent elections in order to remain in power against the sovereign will of the people. The Minister requested that, where independent observers mandated by our Union have noted such situations, the country in question should be placed on the list of countries under sanctions in compliance with Decision 142.

36. The African Union, he stressed implied a system of partnerships; however, Africa would have to first, pool its energies. This could be achieved only through strengthened Regional Economic Communities, judicious exploitation of the potentials of the new information technologies and the development of road infrastructure: Herein lay the essence of NEPAD; a vision whose obvious benefits Africa could not afford to ignore and which gave cause for all the sons and daughters of the continent to rally behind its implementation.

37. The Minister further pointed to the pivotal role that culture must play in Africa’s development programmes, and reaffirmed that the African Union was the ultimate objective set by African leaders. The Union constituted indeed, the final stage of an irreversible process which has come to fruition, and which would certainly encounter numerous hurdles that would have to be overcome.

38. Reviewing the issues to be brought to the attention of Council, the Minister made special mention of the Draft Rules of Procedure and statutes of the Four Key Organs of the African Union, namely: the Assembly, the Executive Council, the Permanent Representatives’ Committee and the Commission; as well as the Draft Statutes of the Peace and Security Council. Furthermore, he took stock of the activities of the OAU, stating that, viewed against its numerous achievements, the establishment of the African Union could not be said to have come about because the OAU had failed. Concluding, the Minister thanked the management and staff of the OAU, and called upon Member States to honour their obligations in order to endow the African Union with the necessary resources to carry out its activities. He finally indicated that the establishment of the Peace and Security Council, as well as the NEPAD Programme was consistent with the envisaged priorities of the African Union.

39. On the recommendations of the Dean of the African Diplomatic Corps in Addis Ababa, Mr. Osman Al Sayed, the Ambassador of the Sudan, and following consultations, the Council elected the Bureau as well as the Drafting Committee of its 76^th Ordinary Session, as follows:

Bureau

- Chairman South Africa

- 1^st Vice-Chairman Ethiopia

- 2^nd Vice-Chairman Egypt

- 3^rd Vice-Chairman Gabon

- Rapporteur Benin

Drafting Committee

Chad, Côte-d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Lesotho, Libya, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, South Africa, Tanzania and Togo.

40. Council also accepted the proposal tabled by the Dean that Eritrea and Chad should, respectively, reply to the address by the Vice-President of the Republic of South Africa, and move a vote of thanks at the closing session.

41. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of South Africa welcomed all the delegations to South Africa and thanked Council for bestowing upon her country, the honour to host the last historic Summit of the OAU and the first Summit of the African Union as well as for the privilege to chair the 76^th Ordinary Session of the OAU Council of Ministers and the first Session of the Union. She congratulated the Outgoing Chairman, Cheik Tidiane Gadio, Foreign Minister of Senegal, for his able and very competent chairmanship, and expressed appreciation for his resilience and sense of humour. She also paid tribute to the Senegalese football team for its performance which had proved that Africans could compete in all areas.

42. As the continent was about to launch the AU, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma called on all to take inspiration from past achievements of the OAU, in order to prepare for a long and arduous future. In that context, she recalled that Africa, with its architectural wonders and genesis of civilization, was the cradle of humanity; an indication that the continent has the capacity to march to a better future. She added that, as the Assembly would bid farewell to the OAU which had served the continent very well, and would be replaced by the African Union, it was good to recall the bigger role of the latter, with its numerous organs that should broaden and reinforce the unity of the continent. She underlined the fact that women should be at the heart of the renaissance of Africa, and that governments, the people and the leadership should focus on fighting poverty in order to wipe out the current negative image of the continent and its people, as objects of charity.

43. She stressed the need for Africans to recognize that their success lay in their acceptance of a common destiny. She then recalled that the 21^st century had been asserted as the African century, and therefore peace alone should reign everywhere. Concluding, she encouraged Member States to work together with the Secretariat so as to ensure success.

44. Council adopted the following working hours:

- Morning 10h00 to 13h00

- Afternoon 16h00 to 19h00