SOUTH Africa's Deputy President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, yesterday declared South Africa's support for a Tanzanian diplomat, Mr Salim Ahmed Salim, as the next secretary general of the UN.
Mr Mbeki's declaration of support, made at a news conference in New Delhi at the end of his five-day visit to India, came as Mr Salim, who is the secretary-general of the Organisation of African Unity, cautiously - but unmistakably - announced that he might be available as a candidate.
Mr Salim had earlier repudiated reports that he might enter the field as a candidate to succeed the incumbent, the Egyptian diplomat, Dr Boutros Boutros-Ghali who had initially sought re-election but, faced with a veto against his re-election from the United States, later announced that he had suspended his candidacy. Asked whether he would eventually stand as a candidate after an OAU meeting in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Mr Salim said: I don't know.
His shift from denial to ambivalence was seen as evidence that he was a potential candidate. Mr Mbeki's statement, made on another continent, buttressed that interpretation. He was generous in his praise of Mr Salim, saying that he would be a very, very good candidate".
Mr Mbeki's declaration was part of South Africa's pressure for a restructuring of the UN to give representation to underdeveloped countries in the UN Security Council, a theme on which President Nelson Mandela has expressed himself forcefully. The Deputy President told reporters at a news conference that there was a need to induct developing nations as permanent members.
While he was discreet on the question of whether or not India should be given a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, Mr Mbeki's support of Mr Salim was not inconsistent with another South African diplomatic initiative: securing a seat for South Africa on the security council as the representative of Africa.
In the wake of South Africa's decision to switch diplomatic ties; from Taiwan to China there was speculation that one of the factors which may have played a role in Mr Mandela's announcement was a hint from Beijing that it would back South Africa's bid for and African seat.
. Four African candidates were nominated yesterday. They were: Mr Kofi Annan of Ghana, the UN undersecretary-general for peacekeeping; Mr Ahmedou Ould Abdallah of Mauritania, the former UN special representative for Burundi; Mr Hamid Algabid off Niger, the secretary-general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference; Mr Amara Essy of the Ivory Coast, its foreign minister. Senegal's President Abdou Diouf said yesterday he was proposing his Foreign Minister, Mr Moustapha Niasse.