Cape Town – President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged Western countries to fulfill their promises of financing initiatives for African countries.
Ramaphosa said this while addressing the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris on Friday.
The summit focused on discussing the impact of various crises, including climate, energy, health, and economic challenges, particularly in vulnerable nations.
Ramaphosa emphasised that African countries are seeking tangible action rather than just rhetoric.
“We want to see the talk being walked. A hundred billion dollars was promised per year and many of us will testify that a hundred billion dollars has never really been made available and this should stand out as something that needs to be addressed. Sometimes, we sit at conferences like this and say, yes, we’ll make this available, and we believe you, but now the tyre must hit the tar. We must now see action flowing from that,” he said.
[FULL REMARKS]: His Excellency President @CyrilRamaphosa‘s remarks at the Closing Ceremony of the Summit for A New Global Financing Pact https://t.co/k1dcLbJT3L #NewGlobalFinancingPact #BetterAfricaBetterWorld pic.twitter.com/S9LnBLiktg
— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) June 23, 2023
Ramaphosa also expressed lingering resentment towards the West for its treatment of African countries during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said that African nations felt like “beggars” when they needed access to vaccines, as Western countries had monopolised the vaccine supply.
Ramaphosa said that the Western countires “had bought all the vaccines in the world and were hogging them”.
“We resented that and it got worse: when we said we wanted to manufacture our own vaccines and when we went to the WTO (World Trade Organization), there was a lot of resistance, enormous resistance.
“We kept saying: what is more important? Life or profits by your big pharmaceutical companies?”
Ramaphosa added: “We felt like life in the northern hemisphere is much more important than life in the global south.”
He criticised the resistance faced when African countries wanted to manufacture their own vaccines and questioned whether profit was prioritised over saving lives.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
