Africa’s future is not about the youth who ask for what their governments will do for them, but rather what they themselves will do to shape the future they aspire to be part of, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, has said.

Dr Dlamini-Zuma was speaking alongside Foreign Affairs and Cooperation minister Louise Mushikiwabo at a question-and-answer discussion hosted by Global Shapers Kigali hub, in Kigali, yesterday, under the theme, "The Africa we want.”

The panel discussion, which was televised live on the public broadcaster, brought together about 100 youths, the majority of them Rwandans, with others from DR Congo, Burundi and Uganda, among other neighbouring countries.

"The youth belong to both generations, now and days to come,” Dr Dlamini-Zuma said, maintaining that as much as the governments can put in place policies to empower youth, it is equally mandatory that the youth strive for the change they want to see in their communities.

"You are part of the now but, above all, you are the future. Shape that future,” Dr Dlamini-Zuma said.

"Young people should hold their governments accountable on decisions they make. Yes, you ask governments to do this and do that, what are you going to contribute toward the Africa we want?” Dr Dlamini-Zuma asked the youth.

Minister Mushikiwabo, on the other hand, said the youth today have many opportunities at their disposal; it is up to them to exploit them and push for the horizons they hope to reach.

"The youth need to find their way to the top through creating their own environment to achieve their potential,” Mushikiwabo said.

Zuma was in the country to assess Rwanda’s preparedness to host the 27th African Union Summit, slated to begin on July 10 in Kigali.

Visa-free Africa

On issues related to free movement of Africans across the continent, Dr Dlamini-Zuma reiterated that the next AU summit, in Kigali, will see the launch of the African passport, which she said will be issued to anticipated heads of state, foreign affairs ministers and members of the Pan-African Parliament.

The leaders would then be expected to thereafter process and issue the continental passports to their respective citizens.

However, the AU Commission chair, whose mandate comes to a close in a month, urged the youth to keep pushing governments to deliver on free-mobility of people, goods and services, or else they are in ‘trouble.”

"The AU Commission sitting in Addis Ababa doesn’t have the capacity more than you have on your governments to implement such issues. If you don’t push the frontiers, we are in trouble,” Dr Dlamini-Zuma said.

However, she called on the governments to have political will to implement a visa-free Africa-wide policy, noting that it has immense benefits to the continent’s socio-economic transformation.

"The political will must come out of all of us, Africans. We should be able to uniformly see the benefits of free movement of Africans across the continent if we want a better change,” Dr Dlamini-Zuma said.

The Kigali Global Shapers’ hub is at the forefront of a visa-free African campaign. They have launched a petition—with a hope that the next AU summit would commit to more "actions than words” in terms of implementing policies that would encourage free mobility across the continent.

More than 1,500 young African have already signed the petition calling on African leaders to address free movement bottlenecks.

Israel Bimpe, a member of Kigali Shapers, said they believe that an open continent is a developed continent."We have seen significant growth of mobility and intra-trade among countries that have opened their borders, with students and business people benefiting most. When you look at the petitions from the people, a visa-free Africa is what people desperately need,” Bimpe said.

Rwanda is among the 14 African countries to have opened their boarders to Africans by creating favourable mechanisms such as offering visas on arrivals.

Minister Mushikiwabo said Rwanda’s move was "not a favour” but rather a necessity which would, in the long-run, benefit the country and other countries willing to trade with Rwanda.

"By opening our borders, we are not doing anyone a favour; it is a necessity. We are looking at the economic and social benefits, and the benefits are enormous,” Mushikiwabo said.

But she acknowledge that through seamless mobility, might come security threats.

"When we opened our borders, we asked our security organs to upgrade their systems. We should promote experience sharing to remove the fear of opening our borders,” she said.editorial@newtimes.co.rw