{"id":7525,"date":"2012-01-31T09:21:29","date_gmt":"2012-01-31T07:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/01\/update-1-au-extends-mandate-of-current-head-exposing-divisions\/"},"modified":"2012-01-31T09:21:29","modified_gmt":"2012-01-31T07:21:29","slug":"update-1-au-extends-mandate-of-current-head-exposing-divisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-1-au-extends-mandate-of-current-head-exposing-divisions\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 1-AU extends mandate of current head, exposing divisions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Ping fails to win outright majority<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* South Africa suffers diplomatic blow<\/p>\n<p> (Recasts with extension of Ping&#8217;s mandate, adds diplomat)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Yara Bayoumy and Aaron Maasho<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>ADDIS ABABA, Jan 30 (Reuters) &#8211; The African Union<br \/>\nextended the mandate of its commission chief after failing to<br \/>\nelect a new head on Monday, highlighting the weakness of a group<br \/>\ncriticised for slow decision-making during political turmoil on<br \/>\nthe continent last year.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Former South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma<br \/>\nwas up against incumbent commission chairman Jean Ping of Gabon,<br \/>\nwho failed to win an outright majority in four rounds of voting.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>After hours of deliberations during which South Africa&#8217;s<br \/>\nforeign minister said the deputy chairman would take over as<br \/>\ninterim commission chief, the African Union said it had decided<br \/>\nto extend Ping&#8217;s mandate for a further six months until the next<br \/>\nsummit in Malawi in June.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The elections were suspended in line with the provisions of<br \/>\nour statute so we took the decision to extend the term of office<br \/>\nof the chairperson, the deputy and his commissioners,&#8221; AU<br \/>\nchairman Benin President Boni Yayi told reporters through a<br \/>\ntranslator.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The commission is the AU secretariat&#8217;s top organ and the<br \/>\nchair its public face.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A Western diplomat said the divisions showed how the power<br \/>\nbalance had shifted in the continent after the death of one of<br \/>\nits main patrons, former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The AU<br \/>\nwas founded at a summit in his hometown of Sirte.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Ping fails to win outright majority * South Africa suffers diplomatic blow (Recasts with extension of Ping&#8217;s mandate, adds diplomat) By Yara Bayoumy and Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA, Jan 30 (Reuters) &#8211; The African Union extended the mandate of its commission chief after failing to elect a new head on Monday, highlighting the weakness [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-7525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}