A confidential note to Dlamini-Zuma

You’ve made it Mrs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Southern Africa and other Anglophone countries on the continent have positively responded to your pledge to lead the executive arm of the African Union (AU).

Congratulations!

You are the first woman to be elected head of the AU Commission.

Now let’s put the celebrations aside and move on to real business. The business for which you were voted in at the weekend.

You know very well what your former husband, President Jacob Zuma, did at the UN last year. You remember that ‘Yes’ vote that mothered the infamous Resolution 1973, which paved the way for the bombing of Libya by NATO forces?

Yes, you do. You do because the invasion of NATO opened the floodgates for violence in that country. Muammar Gaddafi was murdered in cold blood. Black Africans were butchered under flimsy excuses that they were mercenaries when they were merely in Libya for jobs.

When we elect fellow Africans to positions of power such as the one you got at the weekend Mrs Dlamini-Zuma, the aim is to ensure that the African agenda is set in Africa. It is your duty to ensure that the African agenda is not set at 10 Downing Street, the Pentagon, the White House or Brussels.

Your country, Mrs Dlamini-Zuma, is vying for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Of course this would be good for the rest of Africa. But we should not agree to anything the West says just to get that seat.

The AU Commission under your leadership must be fair and impartial. We are told you’ll be working closely with Lindiwe Zulu, your country’s advisor on foreign affairs.

In Zimbabwe they don’t like Ms Zulu. Her role in the mediation efforts in that country is seen to be leaning more to one side of the political divide than the other. You must rise above this kind of leadership, Mrs Dlamini-Zuma.

Africa cries for leadership - meaningful leadership.

From Timbuktu to Juba the continent is yearning for serious political solutions. Africans are fed up with lip service. They want home-brewed solutions to their woes. They can no longer afford to have Ban Ki-Moon, Hillary Clinton or David Cameron deciding their fates.

In other words Mrs Dlamini-Zuma, lead the pack and the rest of us will follow. Prove to Africa that women too are leaders and are on equal footing with their male counterparts on the continent.

All African eyes are now on you.