There will be many alluring offers from the Kingdom that has a history of making promises that it fails to keep.

Hopefully, as a hard-nosed businessman,  Ramaphosa will see he should put them on hold.

Morocco  is currently looking to joining the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which leading member Nigeria has indicated it will oppose.

Flushed with victory after being admitted to the African Union, Morocco is bent on being seen as a major player in Africa.

Customarily this entails hauling out the cheque book to buy what it wants.

According to Morocco’s state media, King Mohammed VI’s meeting in at the Africa Union European Union summit in Abidjan with President Jacob Zuma was master stroke.

There is considerable historical confusion about bilateral relations between Morocco and South Africa.

Playing fast and loose with the truth, Morocco thrives on such confusion.

It likes to talk about Morocco being readmitted to AU.

In fact is never was a member of the union.

It walked out of the AU’s predecessor, the Organization of African Unity when the continental body recognized the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic which is a country illegally occupied by Morocco in 1974 and held since then in defiance of the United Nations and the very AU it now belongs to.

So it was not surprising when Morocco humiliatingly failed to prevent the SADR attending the AU/EU summit.

According to South African officials there. King Mohammed was surprised at how vehemently African Nations insisted on the SADR being there.

They believe that the king was simply not informed of this by his officials who are afraid to tell him what they fear he might not want to hear.

So Morocco has become a new member of the AU, despite objections by South Africa and Nigeria.

The new continental body is adamant that the status of the SADR, which is a founder member of the AU, is not in any danger.

South Africa continues strongly to support the AU position that Morocco has to end Africa last colonial vestige and ends it occupation of the SADR.

Which makes it amusing that the Rabat regime should talk about upgrading relations with Pretoria.

The fact is, Morocco furiously withdrew its ambassador to South Africa 13 years ago when President Thabo Mbeki’s government finally kept Nelson Mandela’s promise and established diplomatic ties with with the SADR.

The Moroccan embassy still operates in Pretoria, sans ambassador.

There was no talk of readmitting a chief envoy from the kingdom when Zuma saw the king  in Abidjan.

The SADR has not objected to that meeting.

However, those who have followed Morocco’s duplicity over Western Sahara feel the timing was unfortunate.

It drew attention away from the Saharawi diplomatic victory of attending a summit with the European Union by making the meeting the story.

The king will seek to capitalise on this by seeking agreement  to send an ambassador.

Zuma, for as long as he is president, and Ramaphosa when he takes the reins should delay this.

Agreement from South Africa should come only once Morocco has at very least stopped seeking to elbow the SADR out of the AU.

Putting the ever-present diplomatic question: what’s in it for us? simply reinforces the case for playing a little hard ball.

Morocco has nothing to offer South Africa.

The idea of a north-south axis at the two ends of Africa is already being pursued by Algeria and Tunisia.

Morocco is not an economic power.

it diplomatic influence as a haven of stability in the Islamic world is fast being eroded.

This leaves it with nothing more on the table that oranges, dagga and bit of tourism.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime lists Morocco as the largest dagga exporter on the planet.

The US Drug Enforcement Agency calls it the largest supplier of dagga to Europe.

Hardly worth selling one’s principles for.

So, hamba kancane, Mr President.

The post Ramaphosa must keep Morocco on hold appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The is a defining year for EU-Africa relations, because it has been ten years since the adoption of the joint Africa-EU Strategy.

At this moment in  strengthening  political and economic ties between the two continents, African and European leaders are insisting that investing in youth is a key priority.

Sixty percent  of the African population is under the age of 25.

EU Council President Donald Tusk says young Africans  rightly expect leaders to listen their priotrities of security and prosperity because it is they who will take them forward in the future.

The post African and European leaders insist youth is the key to future prosperty appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The three organizations will accelerating the assisted voluntary returns to countries of origin, and the resettlement of those in need of international protection.

The plight of would-be migrants from Africa to Europe dominates discussion among delegates at the African Union European Union summit in Abidjan.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio  Guterres who has come to pay tribute to what calls a strong and essential pillar of global coopertion, recognizes this

He says its vital to combat traffickers and smugglers of migrants but the tragedies in the Mediterranean will not end without the creation of significant opportunities for legal migration.

The post Legal migration is key to ending miseries of Mediterranean, say UN Secretary General appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

He’s in Burkina Faso  today in well go to Aghan after the summit in Cote d’Ivoire, becoming the first French President to visit the former Gold Coast.

Emmanuel Macron was not yet born when France divested itself of its African colonies.

So FranceAfrique and his country’s post colonial hold on West Africa is not on his agenda.

He even wants the 14 African countries using the African franc to abandon this legacy of the past.

Leaving Senegal out of his first African tour has seriously put out of joint noses  inDakar which regards itself as the strongest French ally in West Africa.

The post French President Macro embarks on his first African safari appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

African leaders say their warnings of dire conditions in Libyan camps housing would-be migrants to Europe have not been heeded.

African leaders are demanding action after seeing shocking footage of young people detained by Libyan authorities being sold at a slave auction.

France has called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

African leaders will need more than this if the central theme of the AU EU summit in Abidjan, which is empower the continent’s  youth and using it  to create economic growth and opportunity is be more than merely sloganising.

The post Slavery shock will cloud Africa-Europe summit appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

He tells a summit of more than 80 countries from the two continents that Africa must graduate from dependent junior partner to strategic equal partner.

Addressing the African Union/ European Union summit in Abidjan, President Jacob Zuma says the new equal partnership must encompass migration, peace and security and youth development.

These are the central themes of the gathering of more than 80 leaders from the neighbouring continents.

Zumas condemns those engaged in modern slavery involving migrants detained in Libya.

He calls for strong support for Libya in combating this evil, without criticising the transitional government in Tripoli for failing to stop it.

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