Credit: Gary Raynaldo /  ©Diplomatic Times /  Ambassador Jerry Matthews Matjila, Security Council President for the month of December 2020  and Permanent Representative of the Republic of South Africa to the United Nations  (File) 

By Gary  Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

UNITED  NATIONS  –  NEW  YORK  –  SOUTH AFRICA   officially took over the rotating Presidency of the UN Security Council Tuesday.  The Republic of South  Africa’s ambassador to the UN   Jerry Matthews Matjila  will preside as President at the Security Council for the month of December. South Africa, one of the most powerful nations in the African continent.  The presidency of the council is held by each of the members for one month, following the English alphabetical order of the member states’ Names.  South Africa follows Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  which held the presidency the month of November.  The UN Security Council comprises  15 member states, including five permanent members – the United Kingdom, China, Russia, the United States and France.   During the month of December,  South Africa will be organising a high-level VTC debate on cooperation between the UN and the African Union peace and security architectures. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (who also heads the AU in 2020) is expected to chair the debate, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres and AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat will brief.  There will also be a  ministerial-level debate on “Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace: Security Sector Governance and Reform”.   This is South Africa’s second time holding the presidency of the powerful UN Security Council. 

“South Africa will continue to strive to promote unity in the Security Council and will work collectively with Council members to enhance the effectiveness of the council’s initiatives in discharging its mandate to maintain international peace and security,” Ambassador Matjila told reporters during a press conference Tuesday regarding the December program in the Council. 

South Africa’s leadership on the UN Security Council is coming at troubling time for the Horn of Africa with Ethiopia headed toward a full-scale civil war that threatens to destabilize the entire region.  In neighbouring Sudan, Ethiopians are continuing to flee the Tigray region. The UN reports  that nearly 45,500 people — most of them children — have fled to Sudan from Tigray and other places of Ethiopia.

Ambassador Matjila on  Ethiopia crisis:

“Last week, the Security Council detailed a very private meeting on Ethiopia that coincided with the African Union announcing the sending of envoys to Ethiopia to meet Prime Minister Ahmed.  (The envoys were Joaquim Chissano, former President of Mozambique; Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, former Liberian President, and Kgalema Motlanthe, former President of South Africa)  These are very highly respected leaders from different regions of Africa appointed on Friday to go and meet up with their brother Prime Minister Ahmed to exchange views on the situation.  So at that point, the conclusion was let’s encourage the  AU chairperson and his delegation to go to Ethiopia and consult with them and then we will  get the reports from the envoys and maybe then we (UN Security Council) act on it. Ethiopia is an important country. Ethiopia is a founding member of the United Nations Charter of 1945 and was present in San Francisco at that time. Actually, Emperor Haile Selassie made a very significant contribution to world peace and resolution of conflict.  Ethiopia is a massive country. It is a pillar of stability in the Horn of Africa and everybody wants to see it stabilized and at peace.”

UN Secretary‑General António Guterres last Friday spoke to Ethiopia PM Ahmed and expressed his “grave concern” over the consequences of the Ethiopian conflict to the civilian population and over the spread of hate speech and reports of ethnic profiling.  The Secretary‑General additionally expressed the UN’s full support for the African Union initiative led by President Ramaphosa. The Secretary‑General also underscored the need for the full respect for human rights, as well as for humanitarian access for the UN  and its humanitarian partners, according to his spokesperson.

UN Security Council also to Meet on Sudan,  South Sudan,  Somalia, Central African Republic Issues

Credit: Gary Raynaldo /  ©Diplomatic Times /  Ambassador Jerry Matthews Matjila, Security Council President for the month of December 2020  and Permanent Representative of the Republic of South Africa to the United Nations  (File) 

Regarding other African issues, an adoption is anticipated to renew the mandate of MONUSCO in the DRC, with a briefing and consultations ahead of the renewal. An adoption is also scheduled to renew counter-piracy measures in Somalia. There are several meetings related to Sudan and South Sudan this month. On South Sudan, there will be a briefing and consultations on the activities of UNMISS, as well as a briefing by the chair of the 2206 South Sudan Sanctions Committee.  On Sudan, members will have the quarterly briefing by the chair of the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee and semi-annual briefing on the International Criminal Court’s work by the Prosecutor of The Hague-based war tribunal.    The Council is expected to focus on Central Africa in December, with a briefing and consultations scheduled on the semi-annual report on UNOCA and the implementation of the UN regional strategy to combat the Lord’s Resistance Army.

Regarding Middle East issues there will be consultations on UNDOF in the Golan Heights, whose mandate expires on 31 December.  On Iran, the Council is scheduled to receive  the Secretary-General’s report on the implementation of resolution 2231, which in 2015 endorsed the JCPOA on Iran’s nuclear programme. Briefings are expected from the Joint Commission, established by the parties to the JCPOA to oversee its implementation, and from the Council’s 2231 facilitator, Ambassador Philippe Kridelka (Belgium), Under-Secretary General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs
Rosemary DiCarlo, and a representative of the EU in its capacity as coordinator of the Joint Commission. The regular meetings on Syria, Yemen and the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Question, are also on the December programme of work. On Syria, there will be an open and closed meeting covering the political and humanitarian situations and possibly both an open and closed meeting on the use of chemical weapons. The meetings on developments in Yemen and on the situation in the Middle East are also planned in both open and closed format.

Ambassador Matjila Says US President-Elect Biden’s  Pick for UN Ambassador will lend support to  African Issues

Credit: Gary Raynaldo /   © Diplomatic  Times /  Ambassador  Linda Thomas-Greenfield , an American diplomat who served as the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the United States Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs from 2013 to 2017, was the moderator of Honoring Dr. Ralph J. Bunche at the NMAD in Washington D.C. Feb. 27, 2020. 

President-elect Joe Biden is nominating career diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield as US ambassador to the United Nation.   Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield brings a resume of deep diplomatic experience and will help restore the U.S.-UN  relationship that was strained  after four years of President Trump’s administration which resisted multilateralism. President Trump did not hide his scorn for the  UN and took a strong-arm unilateral “America First”  diplomatic posture in  global affairs.  A long-time diplomat, Thomas-Greenfield has previously served as an ambassador to Liberia and the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 2013-2017. 

Africa by its sheer numbers of nations is extremely significant at the UN Security Council. According to data,  in 2018, more than  50% of Security Council meetings, 60% of its outcome documents, and 70% of its resolutions with Chapter VII mandates concerned African peace and security issues. African states comprise nearly 28% of the UN’s overall membership, providing significant regional political backing to the A3-bloc of African countries on the Council.  South Africa, Niger and Tunisia are the A3 members in 2020.  The big world powers don’t respect the A3 on the UN Security Council. Perhaps  Linda Thomas-Greenfield will help the African nations become a united powerful trio on the Security Council. 

“Linda is a friend of mine.  I think the African view, the A3 plus one will get additional support on African-related issues. We think that the (US) administration will look differently. With Linda being here it will be a very big injection, a new spirit, building on predecessors. You know even our friends (current US Ambassador to UN) Kelly Craft and before her were not very cooperative with our coalition on some issues.  It doesn’t mean when Linda arrives here everything will be resolved. No. But you know, I would think that she brings to bear a vast experience, over three decades of diplomacy. That is what we need now. Now we need a diplomatic skills, maturity and knowing,  on a common cause whether we discuss a situation in Latin America , Columbia , Venezuela, Cuba, whether it is Burundi, Rwanda, Syria, Libya, Yemen-  we all need one another. We all need to work together and we can succeed.

-South Africa Ambassador Matjila