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President Mugabe chats with his deputies Emmerson Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko at Harare International Airport yesterday upon arrival from the 29th Session of the African Union meeting which was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. — (Picture by Munyaradzi Chamalimba)

Remarks by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Comrade RG Mugabe, on the occasion of the handover of the proceeds of the cattle donation to the African Union Foundation in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 3, 2017

Your Excellency President of the Republic of Guinea and chair of the African Union, President Alpha Conde

Your Excellency, Heads of State and Government

Your Excellency chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen

Comrades and Friends

In June 2015, I attended a fundraising dinner hosted by the African Union Foundation, on the margins of the 24th ordinary session of the Assembly of the Union, held in Johannesburg, South Africa. You will recall that the 24th Assembly, which I had the pleasure to preside over, was dominated by the debate on alternative and innovative ways of financing our Union.

In the spirit of the occasion, I pledged 300 cattle from my personal herd towards capacitating the newly established African Union Foundation.

You see, as an African and a farmer, a donation of cattle came naturally to me, given our continent is rich in cattle and cattle are held as a store of wealth.

When I returned to Zimbabwe and informed my party and people of this pledge, they said to me; “Comrade President this is a very innovative idea, for a very noble cause, and we would like to be part of it.” They therefore joined hands and mobilised more cattle, over and above my personal pledge.

They were then auctioned across the country in order to augment my contribution. The AU Foundation chief executive Mr Dumisani Mngadi visited Zimbabwe in May 2017 and witnessed first-hand some of these cattle sales.

I was most gratified that this noble cause had resonated well with my party and the people who made it possible for my initial pledge to be more than doubled.

Your Excellencies, I am aware that this humble gesture on our part has no universal application, but it demonstrates what is possible when we apply our minds to the most urgent task before us, of finding alternative ways of funding our Union and in particular our Agenda 2063.

As I have said before in this Assembly, unless we can fund our own programmes the Union will not be truly our own.

The historic decision we took in Johannesburg to progressively increase our assessed contributions to the African Union so that we can, in the next five years, finance 100 percent of our operational budget, 75 percent of our programme budget and 25 percent of our peacekeeping budget, is the beginning of the restoration of our dignity and integrity as a continent.

It is never going to be easy to wean ourselves from the donor dependence syndrome, but we need to forge ahead for our sake and that of future generations.

This modest contribution I am making today is a symbolic step in that direction. And so today, as I honour the pledge I made almost a year and half ago, I would like to challenge all of us here present and African Union Foundation for the development of this great continent of ours.

Together let us build our continent brick by brick, stone by stone until we achieve “the Africa we want” as envisaged in our blueprint 2063.

With these remarks, it is my pleasure and privilege to hand over to you, Your Excellency, Mr Chairman, a cheque of US$1 million, being proceeds of the sale of the cattle for the capacitation of the African Union Foundation.

I thank you

RGM