Control Your Resources, Zimbabwe President Urges Africans

President Mugabe chats to AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Ambassador Ramtane Lamamra while incoming Cissa chairman Retired Major General Happyton Bonyongwe (left) and outgoing chairman General Rashid Lallali look on., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Control your resources, President urges Africans

Tuesday, 07 May 2013 00:00
Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
Zimbabwe Herald

AFRICAN nations should take control of their natural resources for the benefit of their populations after centuries of exploitation by Western countries, President Mugabe has said.. Officially opening the Conference of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa in Harare yesterday, the President called for the beneficiation of natural resources to increase value and support industrialisation.

He, however, decried conflict situations in Africa saying these were costing the continent US$18 billion annually.

“It is time for Africa to be proactive in using her resources for her developmental objectives bearing in mind that African resources have, hitherto, been predominantly foreign-owned and exploited with little benefit to Africans.

“Additionally, our resources have until now, been exploited primarily as raw materials with very little beneficiation taking place,” he said.

The conference, running under the theme “The nexus between Africa’s Natural Resources, Development and Security,” comes at a time when Zimbabwe’s implementation of resource nationalism has angered Westerners who were only deterred from invasion by the country’s security reputation.

Cissa was mooted in the wake of Zimbabwe’s interception of a plane-load of mercenaries who were on their way to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea to depose the government of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema on March 7 2001 in the wake of discoveries of massive oil reserves off the Gulf of Guinea.

This sent everyone in intelligence services in Africa, rethinking closer co-operation culminating in the formation of Cissa in Abuja, Nigeria, on August 26 2004, bringing together intelligence and security services from 49 AU member-states.

Cissa’s aims and objectives include assisting the AU and specifically the Peace and Security Commission to effectively deal with security challenges confronting the continent.

A number of African countries are taking Zimbabwe’s lead by demanding involvement in the exploitation of their resources following decades of extraction by Western governments and multinational companies.

Zimbabwe embarked on land reform and has crafted the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act as part of efforts to involve the previously marginalised populace in the mainstream economy.

“If we arrest the scourge of conflicts, a bright future for Africa becomes a reality as the necessary tranquil environment will then obtain. Consequently, Africa will be fully capable of exploiting her own resources for developmental purposes.

“Estimations are that Africa loses US$18 billion per annum through conflicts. The continent loses even more if we factor in resources siphoned out from us by our erstwhile colonisers during times of military conflict, as well as the loss of human capital as our skilled manpower is sometimes constrained to seek seemingly greener pastures abroad,” President Mugabe said.

He also urged African countries to unite in resolving their domestic affairs without outside interference.

“Fellow Africans, the time for us to demonstrate a will of common purpose, if the battle against the evils of foreign intervention and its attendant latter-day scramble for Africa is to be won, is now. Allow me, therefore, to cast the gauntlet before you all.

“The time has come for Africa to accept primary responsibility and behave in a manner that should exclude the requirement for others to intervene in our affairs. This is the time we should take responsibility for our omissions and remedy the mistakes, which we would have made.

“This sense of accountability should be the ultimate phase towards Africa’s self-interpretation in the broad trajectory of charting our Pan-African destiny,” he said.

He said past interventions by foreigners on African matters have resulted in the use of stealth predator drones which not only gather intelligence on Africa but also conduct geological surveys targeting the continent’s resources.

He said military interventions has also been used to facilitate easy extraction of Africa’s natural resources.

President Mugabe urged Cissa delegates to equip their governments with necessary tools for early detection of conflict potential and mechanisms to ameliorate them.

He said Western intelligence services have policy documents outlining future interventions in Africa and urged Cissa to do likewise.

“As Cissa similar policy guidelines need to be crafted and driven by the intelligence community in your annual, intermediate and long term assessments and in projections of the destiny of Africa, even up to the next 50 years.’’

The President, however, commended the continent’s security services for coming up with programmes such as Continental and Regional Early Warning Systems, the AU Border Programme and the AU Policy Framework on Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development among others.

Meanwhile, director general of the Central Intelligence Organisation retired Brigadier General Happyton Bonyongwe who is the incoming Cissa chair thanked his predecessor, Algeria for the work it did during its tenure.

“Zimbabwe is determined to maintain the snowballing momentum generated by Algeria and also to guarantee Cissa’s growing role in the provision of intelligence support to the AU,” Rtd Brig Gen Bonyongwe said.

He also acknowledged the importance of using the continent’s resources in poverty eradication as integral to conflict prevention.

Ambassador Ramtane Lamamra, who was standing in for AU Chairperson Dr Nkosazana Dhlamini-Zuma bemoaned Africa’s inability to intervene in Mali, a development that saw France sending troops to repel the rebels.

He also reiterated Africa’s sovereignty over its resources.

“The inter-relation between natural resources, development and security has manifested itself in many ways.

“Sovereignty over our natural resources is an inalienable right of our nations and must be harnessed for the development of our nations. It is a fact that if the resources are properly harnessed Africa can be a leading continent in the 21st century,” Ambassador Lamamra said.

The conference is also being attended by Deputy Director General for International Cooperation in the Ministry of State Security of the People’s Republic of China Mr Liu Yang and representatives from Italy, Portugal and the United Arab Emirates.