PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe will be African Union (AU) chairman for the next 12 months in addition to being Sadc chair.
Since assuming the Sadc position, he has not held a meeting or summit for the regional organisation. That calls to question the need and value of such regional bodies to effectively deal with issues related to trade, bi-lateral relations, tourism, defence and other key concerns that were mooted when such organisations were founded.
Luckily for Mugabe, while he might not have an agenda for Sadc, the AU normally through the secretariat would already have a schedule of meetings for the entire year.
He will have work to do in that direction unlike in Sadc where he can dodge Didymus Mutasa’s letter of complaint by not having a meeting for the entire year.
AU does have emergency meetings as and when called for and after due consultation. AU meetings unfortunately have had little impact on African countries signatory to the principles and statutes of that union.
Typically, Mugabe has hinted that the first port of call for him as AU head would be to tax member countries to fund the union; his main argument being the West should not fund and influence operations of the union?
Why fund AU when education, healthcare and social amenities are crumbling? His proposal smacks of transferring the abnormal home front to the rest of Africa.
Locally, the tax payer is burdened with tollgate fees, value added tax, pay as you earn, Aids levy, and a whole host of taxes, some known and others unknown.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
In addition, urban tollgates are being mooted for overtaxed motorists who would likely park cars at home and walk to work.
Taxpayers have been told that urban tollgate levies would repair urban roads, but all the millions from highway tollgates have not over the years been used to resurface a single road in any part of the country. Much as some people celebrate Mugabe, many in the country will recall how useless the AU has been in Africa.
Indeed students from African universities like Makerere, Fourah Bay, Njala, Ibadan, Milton Magaya and Fort Hare used to joke that the abbreviation OAU (Organisation of African Unity) could well stand for “old and useless” because OAU had been turned into an old boys’ club where old and useless African presidents met from time to time to enjoy expensive whiskey, tea and State dinners.
OAU changed to AU and that might as well stand for “absolutely useless”.
