Ramaphosa  also takes an oblique swipe at US President Donald Trump scrapping the nuclear deal with Iran.

President Cyril Ramaphosa says he’s humbled by the African nomination for democratic South Africa to have a third term as a temporary member of the United Nations Security Council in 2019 and 2020.

But he reminds the more than 100 envoys assembled at the presidential guest house that this will require a vote in the UN General Assembly next month and he asks for the strong and lasting support of their countries.

Ramaphosa says South Africa will use its membership of the 15-nation UN powerhouse – as it has on the two previous terms it served there – to further peace and security globally  and more specifically in Africa where most of the world’s conflicts are located.

He reiterates South Africa’s strong commitment to multilateralism with the United Nations at its centre and expresses satisfaction at the G20 foreign ministers underlining this at their meeting in Buenos Aires this week.

Without mentioning his US counterpart Donald Trump by name , Ramaphosa expresses concern about the threat to the rules based system posed by the unilateral revocation of binding international agreements.

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That country’s government exile, which is a member of the AU, will push Morocco to to keep its promise to hold an independence referendum.

The African Union has opted to resolve the continent’s last colonial issue by allowing Morocco back into the family.

The Kingdom stormed out of the AU’s predecessor 33 years ago when the OAU granted membership to the Western Sahara it has occupied  since 1975.

South Africa and Algeria said membership of the AU should follow Morocco regularising its position.

No fewer than 39 members disagreed.

Morocco will become the 55th member of the AU, bound by its anti-colonial constitution.

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President Brahim Ghali will be here on Friday.

President Brahim Gali took control of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic  after the death last year of President Mohamed Abdelaziz.

South Africa is one of the staunchest supporters SADR who’s occupation by Morocco is regarded as Africa’s last colonial issue.

Western Sahara has moved back into the African spotlight with Morocco seeking admission to the AU.

It quit the continental body’s predecessor when the OAU recognized Western Sahara.

President Jacob Zuma’s expected to reassure Gali that Morocco will not be admitted to the AU until it has kept its promise to give the Saharawi people a referendum on self-determination.

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Morocco is steaming ahead with its plan to join the African Union.

King Mohammed VI is bent on achieving this at the AU summit next month.

He’s not a man accustomed to being told: no.

His officials have told him that joining requires a majority of AU members, and they are confident of attracting this.

So, the King is visiting as many African capitals as possible to make the case for his country joining the family.

Sometimes he gets ahead of himself. He told the Zambians, for example, what date he was planning to arrive.

They responded that they would let him know when it would be convenient.

When AU Commission chair Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma told Rabat that joining the body entailed more than merely a question of securing a majority of members, the Moroccan authorities furiously denounced her for blocking their aspirations.

Understanding the AU reservations about taking on this issue, requires looking back at the last time the continental body was seized with the Western Sahara.

Back then it was called the Organization of African Unity and it was a  very different kettle of fish.

Not to put too fine a point to it, the OAU was a cozy coterie of what was fashionable called the Big Men of Africa.

Their word was law. They brooked no criticism.

When King Hassan II – Mohammed VI’s father – invaded and occupied the Western Sahara, he did not expect push back from his African peers.

But for them decolonization took precedence  over everything.

The argument by the Polisario Front – the ruling party in the occupied country – that their’s was a decolonization issue held sway.

The Western Sahara became a member of the OAU 21 years ago and Morocco left the organization in high dudgeon.

OAU members breathed a sigh of relief because the preoccupation with Western Sahara had almost paralyzed its operations for years.

African leaders had tired of Morocco’s broken promises to allow the Saharawi to determine their future by way of a referendum.

When the OAU became the AU in 2002, Western Sahara signed on as a foundation member.

Morocco elected to remain out.

The Kingdom has a lot going for is strategically. For example France and the United States buy the Moroccan argument that  losing Western Sahara will be the undoing of the kingdom that lies as a bastion against Islamist extremism at the very top of Africa.

Economically, Morocco is a chronic underperformer. Its chief exports are oranges and dagga. Legal trade in the former is largely used to cover the illegal transactions in the latter.

Morocco’s claims its proximity to the Gulf kingdom has given it a certain leverage  over investment funds.

It has used this to the full in persuading Africans to let them into the AU.

However that influence has not withstood the acid test.

Morocco told its friends in the Gulf that it would lead an African walk out from the Arab African summit because of the presence of a Western Sahara delegation.

In the event the Africans stayed put. The walk out involved Morocco and a half dozen Arab states.

The real problem when it comes to joining the African Union, is not Morocco’s lack of muscle but its apparent inability to face reality.

Rabat officials insist there will be no price.

Simply put, it means Morocco expects to walk into the AU without settling Africa’s last colonial issue.

Not only will they not deal with the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, but they entertain the vain hope that  their AU friends will support  expulsion of SADR.

A number of AU members do not have diplomatic ties with the Western Sahara. But the body’s constitution make no provision for expelling a founder member

The AU has changed radically from the OAU. The country hoping to join the new body  has altered not one jot from the kingdom that stormed out of the old one.

“Letting in this unchanged Morocco would be opening the door to a time bomb”, says Western Sahara ambassador designate  Radhi Sehaiar Bachir.

AU leaders preparing for their next summit have a daunting list of difficulties: DRC, Burundi, South Sudan just for starters.

Are they ready to take on another?

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commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma of of blocking its efforts to join the AU.

The North African Kingdom refuses to end its illegal occupation of Western Sahara or to accept this country as a fellow member of the continental organisation.

Rabat’s strongly worded statement accused AU commission head Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma of  trying to thwart Morocco’s decision to regain its natural and legitimate place within its pan-African institutional family.

It accuses her of taking orders from Algeria.

Morocco blames its neighbor for the  international problems it encounters as a result of its occupation of Western Sahara.

It quit the AU’s  predecessor, the OAU when it recognised the Western Sahara.

Morocco is clearly fooling itself if it believes it can join the African Union without addressing what is called Africa’s last colonial issue.

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The the request was made to the AU Commission Chairperson, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Morocco angrily stormed out of the AU’s predecessor, the Organization of African Unity in 1984 after it recognized the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Morocco has illegally occupied the Western Sahara it invaded  in 1975.

It never joined the AU established in 2001

AU commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma says due process will be followed and the Kingdom of Morocco will be officially notified of the outcome.

It is not clear whether joining the AU will require Morocco to recognize the government in exile of the country it occupies.

African powers like South Africa and Nigeria are expected to demand this.

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The North African country’s seeking to join the African Union and upgrade its representation in South Africa after angrily withdrawing its ambassador to Pretoria when it recognized the Western Sahara that Morocco occupies illegally.

ends intro

Speaking at  Morocco’s  national day celebration, charge d’affairs Rachid Aggasim did not mention the Western Sahara when he spoke about opening new chapters of friendship with both South Africa and the African Union.

South Africa’s representative, DIRCO director Graham Maitland, says South Africa looks forward to cooperating with Morocco.

However he left him in no doubt  that the Western Sahara issue has to be addressed the he emphasized South Africa support for that country and its commitment to international law.

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The kingdom walked out of the continental body’s predecessor 32 years ago when the Organisation of Africa  recognised the government in the Western Sahara illegally occupied by Sahara for 40 years.

A Moroccan special envoy is is Kigali where African leaders start their summit to tomorrow.

Moroccan officials won’t say if King Mohammed VI will attend the summit.

His country is the only one on the African continent  not to belong to the AU

Host President Paul Kagami, who’s to become the next AU president  visited Morocco last month where he was decorated by  King Mohammed.

Joining the AU would require recognising  the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, which Morocco has resumed to do,  just as it has broken its promise to allow a referendum enabling the people of the occupied territory to determine their future.

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