INPUT BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN MINISTER OF STATE SECURITY HONOURABLE DAVID MAHLOBO ON INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL HOTSPOTS AT THE 7TH BRICS MEETING OF HIGH REPRESENTATIVES FOR SECURITY ISSUES, BEIJING – CHINA : 28 JULY 2017

Your Excellency State Councillor of the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China, Mr Yang Jiechi

Your Excellency the Minister of the Institutional Security Cabinet of Brazil, General Sergio Etchegoyen

Your Excellency the National Security Advisor of India, Mr AjitDoval

Your Excellency Secretary General of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Mr Nikolai Patruchev

Ladies and Gentlemen

  1. There has been little change in the regional hotspots in Africa and the Middle East[1] as deliberated at our last meeting. The persistence of terrorist activity, existing conflicts and unresolved tensions is a disquieting reminder that international peace and stability remain fragile and regression is possible if the peace is not guarded.
  1. In addition, such political and security challenges have had a negative impact on socio-economic development and the plight of refugees and internally displaced persons. In fact, it has exacerbated transnational organised crime and illegal migration. The situation in Syria aptly demonstrates the debilitating spill-over effects of these challenges. In this regard, effective cooperation is an inescapable imperative as our security has inevitably become more intertwined than ever before.
  1. In Africa, the recognition of the growing cost of conflict has resulted in the continent’s leaders’ institutionalising their commitment to “silencing the guns by 2020” as encapsulated in the African Union’s Agenda 2063. This is a significant development given the continent’s history. For Africa, conflict intensified with the advent of colonialism. The colonial subjugation of Africa by Europe was an act of military conquest, which in turn, forced most former colonies to resort to the use of arms in order to emancipate themselves from colonial bondage.
  1. In the post-colonial era, the West’s continued interference in Africa’s political processes and its desire to have unlimited access to Africa’s natural resources, remain the main source of many inter and intra-state conflicts on the continent.
  1. Conflict is, thus, one of the primary concerns of the continent’s leadership; hence the evolution of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). Through the key structures of the APSA, notably the Peace and Security Council (PSC); the Continental Early Warning System (CEWS); the Panel of the Wise; the Peace Fund, the African Standby Force (ASF); and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the AU strives to create a conflict free continent.
  1. Despite such commitment, the African Continent is still experiencing a number of security challenges deriving largely from the socio- economic sphere, the political realm, as well as transnational organised crime. Among the contributing factors is the challenge of high youth unemployment, with indications that 50 percent of the continent’s population is under nineteen (19) years of age. Other challenges include poverty and underdevelopment, political and economic exclusion, as well as terrorism.
  1. The incidents of violent conflict have persisted despite various AU initiatives in conflict resolution. Among the reasons is that the African continent is a target of hostile external forces, whose activities wittingly contribute to conflicts. These activities correlate with a neo-colonial thinking that an Africa at conflict is easy to exploit.
  1. Of concern is that cyberspace is increasingly being abused and exploited to facilitate all sorts of destructive and criminal activities such as terrorism, human trafficking, child exploitation, bank fraud, identity theft, and trade in illicit goods. Transnational criminal groups and terrorists continue to exploit the internet for various nefarious activities that include planning terrorist or other forms of attack, financing terrorism, recruitment into terrorist groups, upscaling radicalization and violent extremism, inciting violence, propaganda, and instilling fear among the general public.
  1. Cyber space, as with other challenges confronting us, knows no borders. In this regard, effective cooperation is an inescapable imperative as our security has inevitably become more intertwined than ever before.
  1. The impetus for strengthening such collaboration among BRICS member states is heightened by the reality that unilateral interests and foreign interference, including proxy wars, have generally become the major impediment to lasting solutions and peace in Africa and the Middle East. It is therefore critical that the BRICS National Security Advisors be always apprised of the extent to which unilateral interests and proxy wars have become major drivers of geo-political tensions and socio-economic challenges in the two regions.
  1. We support a greater complementarity on international hotspot issues between the BRICS High Representatives for Security Issues and BRICS Foreign Ministers. This will be critical in reinforcing the commitment of BRICS states to “preventative diplomacy”.
  1. In this regard, let me conclude with a reminder of the former UN Secretary General, Kofi ANNAN’s observations in his address to the Presentation of the Final Report of the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict on 5 February 1998:

“We seem never to learn. Time and again differences are allowed to develop into disputes and disputes allowed to develop into deadly conflicts. Time and again, warning signs are ignored and pleas for help overlooked. Only after deaths and the destruction do we intervene at a far higher human and material cost and with far fewer lives to save. Only when it is too late do we value prevention”.

I thank you.

[1]Delegations are generally expected to reflect on those hotspots within their region. The Middle East is a region of common interest.