JB too busy for EU-Africa Summit

President Joyce Banda has joined three other African leaders who are not attending the two-day European Union (EU)-Africa Summit taking place in Brussels, Belgium because she is too busy with the political campaign for the May 20 Tripartite Elections race, according to a senior government official.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation principal secretary George Mkondiwa confirmed in an interview yesterday that the President would not be attending the Fourth EU-Africa Summit which starts today and ends this Thursday.

Banda has since delegated Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ephraim Chiume to attend.

So far, president of South Africa Jacob Zuma has boycotted the summit amid calls from Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe following the exclusion of Mugabe’s wife, Grace, who is facing EU travel sanctions, and certain African leaders such as Sudan president Omar Hassan Al Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

However, Mkondiwa was quick to point out that Banda had not shunned the summit for those reasons.

He said: “She decided not to go. The reasons given were that she is busy with the elections. But our minister has led a delegation to the summit, and today he attended the meeting of ministers of Foreign Affairs.”

The EU-Africa Summit brings together African and EU leaders under the theme ‘Investing in People, Prosperity and Peace’ to discuss issues, including peace, security, investment, climate change and migration.

Banda has had a busy few days in the Eastern Region, touring various areas in Mangochi since Sunday after launching the People’s Party (PP) campaign on Saturday in Lilongwe.

Yesterday, Banda was conducting the official opening of maternity waiting home and commissioning of Malawi Rural Electrification Programme phase 7 at Lungwena Trading Centre in Mangochi before holding a political rally later.

In a related development, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation online report said the participation of African leaders at the summit is a betrayal of the principles of African unity and the spirit of pan-Africanism as espoused by the continent’s founding fathers.

South Africa’s Business Day Live reported that Zuma announced that he would not participate in the summit, saying: “I think that time must pass wherein we [African leaders] are looked [on] as subjects, we are told who must come, who must not come… It is wrong and causes this unnecessary unpleasantness.”