Let this biff on the nose not keep us from Africa's battles

SA's failed attempt at the AU Commission's top job was at least a sign of vigour

MANY will remember the oft-recycled joke about a man who walks away from a brawl all battered, bruised and swollen. When passers-by look at him with curiosity and sympathy, he says confidently: "You should see the other guy!"

That pretty much sums up South Africa's reaction to the failure to get Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma elected as chairwoman of the African Union Commission this week.

Upon learning that, despite her failing to get Africa's top job, she had at least managed to prevent incumbent Jean Ping from getting a second term, the South Africans at the AU summit burst into celebratory song. It seems celebrating stalemates is becoming quite a thing among us. The scenes in Addis Ababa were reminiscent of that embarrassing Bafana Bafana jive after the team drew 0-0 with Sierra Leone last year.

The spin coming out of Pretoria and from the South African delegation at the AU headquarters was that stymying the ineffective Ping's bid for a term extension was a victory. According to them, what happened in Addis Ababa was a triumph over French imperialism as the former Gabonese foreign minister was a mere proxy of his home country's former colonial master. Through him, it was said, the French were able to exercise influence in African affairs. Therefore this week we, South Africa, struck a blow for Africa.

At this point, Dear Reader, please muffle your ha ha ha ha's!

Let's cut through the cow dung: we lost. Period! Dlamini-Zuma's contestation may have helped Africa cut short Ping's fruitless term but South Africa's real objective had been to install her as the Big Kahuna at the AU. That did not happen.

Obviously it is not easy to admit defeat.

As much as she would have done a great job at the AU, putting Dlamini-Zuma forward was diplomatic folly and smacked of naivety. By risking the trump card and then failing to beat a much-disliked incumbent, we did not just set her up for humiliation, we exposed our own weakness as a power on the continent.

The conspiracy theory doing the rounds in recent months was that South Africa nominated Dlamini-Zuma for the AU job because she has to be very far away in this ANC election year.

Word on the street was that some of potential ANC presidential candidate Kgalema Motlanthe's backers had been toying with putting her on their slate as a deputy president of the party. Yet another theory had her being a consensus candidate in the upcoming Battle of Mangaung. As someone who is almost universally respected in the ANC, she is seen as one of the few people who can get the crisis-ridden party on an even keel.

Whether she would want the job and whether, for personal reasons, she would shy away from challenging her former husband is neither here nor there. The fact is that some of the machine-gun man's worshippers fear her attractiveness.

But that's probably all just conspiracy theory. So back to the real world.

Trying to get a credible and effective individual to run the AU was the right thing to do. Since its formation in 2002, the AU has done very little to differentiate itself from the Organisation of African Unity old boys' club. It has been unable to respond to the continent's challenges - be they economic, civil conflict, famine or disputes between member states.

At a time when the world is getting excited about Africa's economic potential, the AU is unable to harness this excitement for the benefit of the continent's people.

The AU needs someone who will take it by the scruff of its neck and force it to deliver on its mandate of enabling Africa to "play its rightful role in the global economy while addressing multifaceted social, economic and political problems".

In an ideal world, Dlamini-Zuma would be that person. Her effectiveness as a leader is unquestioned. She is one of the most experienced and respected diplomats in Africa and is the type of individual who shows her teeth only when it is absolutely necessary.

But her candidature was bound to end in failure, given some of the continent's players' misplaced distrust of South Africa's power. Misplaced because South Africa hardly wields its power and rarely exercises leadership. This reluctance to lead, particularly in the post-Mbeki era, is one of the reasons the AU is moribund.

So afraid are we of being tagged with the "regional bully" label that we tread carefully and end up being the regional wimp.

But it is generally known and accepted in human behaviour that every schoolyard needs a bully. If Africa ever needed a bully it is now. Africa's other powers - Egypt, Nigeria and Libya - are in turmoil.

If anything positive is to be taken from the abortive bid, it is that South Africa was willing to engage in diplomatic aggression(yes, there is such a thing).

When South Africa and her allies make another bid for the control of the AU - possibly with a different candidate - they must know they will have to box smarter.