AU appoints Permanent Rep to COMESA

THE African Union Commission (AUC) has appointed the current AU Southern Africa Region Office (AU-SARO) representative Dr Ngomo Augustelepo as its new Permanent Representative to the COMESA Secretariat. During presentation of his credentials to the AU Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya, Dr Ngomo said the African Union Commission is committed to working closely with regional economic communities such as COMESA as the building block to the African economic community. “The commission cannot achieve any tangible result if it does not work with regional economic communities because you are closer to the people and we need you to achieve real integration,” Dr Ngomo said. He added that both the AU and RECs should work together to encourage governments to domesticate the different agreements made and communicate the various decisions that are made at meetings and summits so that the ordinary citizens can be made aware. Mr Ngwenya commended the AUC for the continued support and collaboration on different programmes which are all working towards deepening integration. “The continent needs to develop a single platform to use to implement various decisions and agreements unlike the current situation which is full of duplication,” he said adding that the RECs appreciated the commitment of AUC Chairperson H.E Dlamini-Zuma to create a strong partnership. Recently, Ms Dlamini-Zuma directed that all African Heads of State, Ministers and employees in RECs should be issued with AUC passports. Mr Ngwenya said.