Global economic fallout from the terror attacks on the US may slow the New Africa Initiative (NAI) rescue plan, South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in Kuala Lampur Friday.
But Africa should not allow itself to be sidelined as the world focuses on the events of September 11 and their aftermath, she told a news conference on the second day of a four-day visit to Malaysia.
The NAI, adopted at a summit of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in July, is an ambitious plan to pull Africa out of poverty by developing human resources and a wide range of economic sectors, Dlamini-Zuma said.
It will be the cornerstone of the new African Union, which is to replace the 38-year-old OAU in the coming year.
"It may be that it won't be as fast as we would have liked it to be but I don't think it should be affected to a point of it not moving.
"I do think it is something we should guard against because we can find the situation of these events just consuming everybody's energy and time and putting other things on the back burner.
"And I think it is important for us as Africans to make sure it does not get removed from the world screen."
South African President Thabo Mbeki gave a similar warning during a visit to Tokyo Tuesday, saying the world should not focus so much on its anti-terrorism campaign as to forget about other crucial issues such as poverty.
"We ... have to ensure that there is no possibility of these attacks creating negative consequences, whereby the development issues that we have been grappling with for decades, are sidelined to the margins of the global agenda," he said.
South Africa, the driving force behind the NAI, has been hit hard by the repercussions of the attacks on New York and Washington, with the rand currency plunging against the dollar.
The attacks, which have led to a worldwide drop in consumer demand, are also expected to hit South Africa's exports of gold, diamonds and other minerals -- KUALA LUMPUR (AFP)
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