Umm Muhammed Umar

On Radio Islam’s Africa Report, Senior Researcher at the Africa Desk of the Media Review Network Dr Mustafa Mheta spoke about the observer status granted to Zionist Israel. Dr Mehta says that things were not going well at the continental body’s headquarters in in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He said that the Israelis were all over the foreign ministry, bragging about how important it was to become close to African countries so as to influence them to alter the voting patterns at the United Nations. Dr Mheta said that the first country object to Israel having been granted observer status at the African Union was South Africa, followed by Namibia, and then Zimbabwe, Botswana and Nigeria, with other African countries thereafter. He says several African countries protested that they had not been informed about this event. The granting of observer status to Israel, according to Dr Mheta, was supposed to have been tackled at the highest level of heads of state, but that this protocol had been by passed. Dr Mehta says, “Someone did something, somewhere.”

Addressing the issue of who really calls the shots at the AU, Dr Mheta said there are flawed procedures at the African Union headquarters. He laid the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat. He said, “Mr Musa Faki Mahamat, heading the AU commission alone, did this evil alone, without putting it forward to the African countries. Dr Mheta added, “all along, the African countries have been refusing Israel, saying no, we will not grant Israel the observer status until it does what is right in Palestine.” He said the attitude of African countries toward Israel was: “Let them fix their problems with the Palestinians, and then we can talk.” However, it seems that Faki Mahamat went ahead and made the decision to involve Israel without having consulted with the African heads of state having been able to voice their opinion on the issue. Dr Mheta said that he expected heads to roll as a consequence.

Dr Mehta believes the Pegasus spyware scandal is connected to the debacle of Israel having been granted observer status at the African Union.  He says that the extremely expensive spyware is being sold to countries and individuals, and given that the African continent is full of dictators, it is being used by leaders to spy on their people, to spy on the opposition, and to spy on other countries. He said, “Yes, spying is allowed to a certain extent, even among those that call themselves friendly states, but it has limits.” Dr Mheta added, “But this spyware is very dangerous………this is what Israel is using to buy African countries. One of them is (President) is Paul Kagame of Rwanda.” He said Kgame has a system in place to eliminate who oppose him. He had opposition figures, who had fled to South Africa seeking asylum status, killed in South Africa. Dr Mehta said, “that is disrespectful, in terms of international diplomacy – don’t go in someone’s backyard.” He reiterated that if it was discovered South African intelligence had done this, there would be chaos in the world.

Dr Mheta says he hoped that the chair of the African Union Commission, Mahamat was going to learn a lesson resulting from the issue of Israel having been granted observer status at the African Union. He said, “we have already started the petition. We don’t want him at the African Union. He is a spy. How can we trust people like that at the helm of our continental body?” He added, “And we know for sure that money (was) exchanged. He (Mahamat) was bought by the Israelis.”