World President 1st Extra Ordinary Session 8th March 2014, Quatermain Hotel Sandton.

H.E. Honourable K.K. Kapinga Botswana High Commissioner to South Africa Pan African Business Forum President LADIS AGBESI Mr Bertin SOW Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Alumni and students Distinguished guests Ladies and Gentlemen

Today the 8th of March is International Women's day. Four years ago the African Union declared 2010-2020 the Africa Women Decade. We Africa's Thought leaders celebrate all the women in Africa and around the world who are at the centre of Development and salute their progress. We celebrate the rise of women to strategic leadership positions both in the public and private sector. Accomplished women musicians, community activists, women professors, agriculturalists, sociologists, researchers, housewives, entrepreneurs, actresses, film makers teachers and religious ministers. We acknowledge President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf first elected female Head of State in Africa. President Joyce Hilda Banda, of Malawi. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission and a champion in the empowerment of women across the African continent. We acknowledge the newly elected Central African Republic first female President Samba Panza who has answered the call of an enormous task of steering the Volatile Central African Republic back to order and stability. The Late Kenyan Prof. Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel peace prize may her soul rest in eternal peace. Former Deputy President of South Africa Phumzile Mlambo -Ngcuka, who last year (2013) got appointed as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women. Just recently a beautiful Kenyan young lady featuring her American film debut in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave captured the attention of the film industry by being nominated for several awards including the Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role am talking about Lupita Nyon'go. On the same note we would like to highlight the plight of women in Africa who have borne the brunt of violence and endured the lash of tyrants, some are held in notorious prisons (for

their religious, and political beliefs) under inhumane and deteriorating conditions, without access to medical care or proper food. On this international Women's Day and in this decade of African Women we reiterate that the peaceful Africa we have started to re build cannot be achieved while some of our best resources, Women and Mothers are languishing behind prison walls. While some Afro pessimists have made conclusions that nothing good will ever come out of Africa, some prophesied that Africa's future was "extraordinarily gloomy and others declared Africa to be "at the edge of the abyss." we, African thought leaders and change agents for Africa's renewal strongly differ, because we are of unwavering Faith that this the 21st century is without a doubt our century, it is ours for taking, no more blame games, no more hatred the destiny of this beautiful Mother land Africa is in our hands, we have answered the noble task of rewriting our history and telling our stories, our hands are already on the plough and there is no turning back! We gather today on the stage of world affairs, before the audience of world opinions. We have come together to assert our role in the direction of world affairs and to discharge our duty to the great continent whose over 1 Billion people we leadThe task, on which we have embarked, the making of Africa will not wait. We must act, to shape and mould the future and leave our imprint on events as they pass into history. Ladies and Gentlemen, Fifty years on, we find ourselves being that generation to whom this task of shaping and moulding our future has been entrusted. Our minds must be made up and we must be up to the task of telling the African Story and reclaim our history from those who distort it when they tell it. Like the phoenix, we must rise from the ashes of our embittered past to usher in a new dawn of the African Renaissance. YES we hear you President Thabo Mbeki, "Whatever the setbacks of the moment, nothing can stop us now! Whatever the difficulties, Africa shall be at peace! However improbable it may sound to the sceptics, Africa will prosper" LEADERSHIP As we pause to reflect from whence weve come and the way forward for our continent there is greater need to emphasis on the important matter of leadership. As one scholar noted, the problem facing Africa today is not underdevelopment but under management, the clarion call therefore in the dawn of the African Renaissance is nothing but clean, honest, transparent and people centred leadership. The crisis our continent has witnessed in the last 50 years have warranted African leaders to review the critical matter of leadership and resort for value based leadership appropriate for African countries.

Leadership that is based on African principles and values is a leadership that includes the ideals of humanism, human solidarity, compassion and service to others. This is Ubuntu which is based on core values of respect for the inherent dignity of every individual. Honour, service; a lifelong commitment to serve others and to see lives and circumstances improve. Compassion and empathy for the less privileged and the vulnerable. The former President of the Republic of Ghana JOHN KUFUOR writing to the G-20 Summit Technical Committee meeting held in Seoul, South Korea in August 2010 said What Africa needs is leadership. Good leadership. Not just any kind of leadership but leadership that has been well nurtured; to direct socio-economic development, leadership that has vision and is imbued with a missionary zeal to tackle the myriad of problems that face the continent in prioritized order. With such leadership will come the formulation and implementation of good policies (including the entrenchment of human rights and respect for the rule of law; Former President and now my honourable patron Thabo Mbeki has reiterated that if Africa is serious about its claim to make the 21st century the era of its rebirth, we must invest considerable resources in the reconstruction of credible and competent leadership capacity. New generations of leaders will not mushroom naturally; leadership development cannot be left to chance it requires a deliberate, calculated, well researched effort Africa in the 21st century DEMANDS leadership that will facilitate growth, lead marginalized communities into the mainstream of global growth and restore peace and justice where it is an obstacle to sustainable development. African Youth Talking about marginalized communities, no sector of our population adversely affected by exclusion than our youths. One scholar Posch states there will be no redemption for Africa and the AUs vision unless something is done to address the situation in which young people find themselves in. The development of Africa and NEPADs noble ideas rests squarely on the shoulders of young people. Story of the Chinese girl Yue Yue. On the afternoon of 13 October 2011 a two-year-old Chinese girl was run over by two vehicles. For more than seven minutes she lay bleeding on the road, with at least 18 passersby skirting around her body, totally ignoring her. She was eventually helped by a female rubbish scavenger and sent to a hospital for treatment, but succumbed to her injuries and died eight days later. As a father of beautiful little angelic girl my heart was broken, this incident forced the province where this little girl lived to enact a new law which makes it illegal for people to ignore strangers in distress. most of us come from beautiful parts of Africa where emergency response is not as swift as sometimes it should be, in a moment of crisis like a car crash, plane crash or terrorist attack ordinary citizens are normally the first responders sifting through debris, the rubble and

smouldering wreckage looking for survivors, helping the wounded, carrying them to their cars and rushing them to hospitals, thats something we African have been endowed with, UBUNTU. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu speaks of Ubuntu as the very essence of being human. When one has Ubuntu he says then you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, "My humanity is caught up and inextricably bound up, in yours." We belong in a bundle of life because a person is a person through other persons." The Zulu proverb expresses it profoundly Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu or as Mwalimu Julius Nyerere put it Ujamaa meaning "unity" and "oneness", Western writers confirm that the Ubuntu aspect that brands Africa will be the vital success factors that many nations in the world will need to survive. They acknowledge that one of the contributions Africa will make to the world is in the area of human relationships. The great powers of the world may have done wonders in giving the world industrial and military contributions, but the greatest gift of Oneness, humanity, and brotherly kindness will come from Africa.

Thank you all.