Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister, Ambassador Frederick Shava has commended the growing calls for Africa to have a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council in line with demands from the continent.
He said this at the inaugural Thabo Mbeki Foundation Africa Peace and Security Dialogue in South Africa last week where he was standing in for President Mnangagwa.
The event was held under the theme: "Towards a peaceful and Secure Africa: Challenges and Opportunities," and brought together political leaders and experts to brain storm on strategise to protect the continent's sovereignty and advance its economic and political interests.
"I want to inform the audience that Africa has been negotiating at the UN for a seat or two seats in the Security Council. This has been on for some time. And the guiding lines in this respect were coming from the Ezulwini Consensus, which was defined by the African leaders themselves. And these guiding lines were helping Africans negotiate for the seats.
"And the Africans in negotiating for these seats, they negotiated for four seats with the power of veto, not a half-baked seat with no veto. If there was going to be no veto, then there would be no veto for every member of the Security Council. And this is the position there is. So at the moment, it is gratifying that not only the Secretary General (Antonio Guterres) is pronouncing that Africa must have a veto in the Security Council, but even other powers who are already in the Security Council are now also saying, yes, Africa must have a seat. But they are silent on the veto. And we are cautious on how to proceed," Ambassador Shava said.
The Ezulwini Consensus, agreed by the African Union in 2005, seeks to reform the UNSC by providing Africa with two permanent seats with veto power and five non-permanent seats, aiming for enhanced representation and democracy.
The UNSC currently has five permanent members and these are the United State, Russia, China, the UK and France.
Tanzania's Minister of Foreign Affairs and the current chairperson of the Council of Ministers responsible for the Troika, Mr Mahmoud Thabit Kombo also spoke on the need to safeguard African resources to avert conflict.
"We, as Africans, don't know how much minerals we have. We, as Africans, don't know the statistics of the resources there is in Africa. So, these other interests will come around once we know those.
"Maybe other nations outside Africa have got more statistics of the resources in Africa than ourselves.
"So, all these pockets of conflict, be it in Congo, the groups, the three, four groups there, are as a result of the fight to control the exploitation of those resources," he said.
The meeting also discussed far-reaching impacts of climate change, the debilitating effects of debt crises, the devastating consequences of civil wars, and the destabilising threat of unconstitutional government changes.
"Today, we embark on a new journey, one that's not merely a gathering of minds, but an active platform for critical engagement, for robust engagement, and most importantly for the generation of African-led solutions to African problems.
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"We are mindful that we gather here tonight, and as we do so, the world is in turmoil. If it's not genocide we are witnessing in Gaza, it is the extension of this mindless annihilation of the people of Lebanon, or the potential threat of a nuclear disaster.
"For this weekend, whilst we're not forgetting what's happening, as I had indicated, in these parts of the world, we wish to look at our own Continent, which continues to suffer immensely because of conflict.
"We are immensely worried that our continent faces myriad of problems, whether it's climate, debt crisis, civil wars, military takeovers, with the highest number of countries, six in total, suspended by the African Union as a result thereof," the Chancellor of the Nelson Mandela University Dr Geraldine Fraser Moleketi, said.
