When naming Mbeki the winner former Tanzanian prime minister and Organisation of African Unity head Salim A. Salim said Mbeki displayed “outstanding leadership” of the African Union’s High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan (AUHIP). The honour was announced at the fifth annual meeting of the African Media Leaders Forum in Dakar.
Mbeki announced his resignation as president of South Africa in September 2008 as a result of the ANC National Executive Committee’s decision no longer to support him in parliament. In December the previous year at the ANC’s national conference he was ousted by Jacob Zuma, who Mbeki fired as deputy president after charger of corruption was laid against Zuma. The trial was dismissed and the ruling hinted that there might have been political interference by Mbeki and others in Zuma’s prosecution.
Salim said the advisory board, which chose Mbeki normally gave it to “an ordinary African doing extraordinary things”. But Mbeki’s role had been “extraordinary”. The AU panel had succeeded “in bringing Sudan and South Sudan back from the brink of war and consolidating a new start in relations.”
Citing the nine agreements between the two countries which were signed in September, Salim said the advisory board was “particularly impressed with the fact that these accords were of a comprehensive nature, not only focussing on the cessation of hostilities but also on restarting southern oil exports through the North, reviving cross-border trade, and overall forging a new start in relations.”
