The meaning of this word came to mind after this week’s 29th SADC Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government which was held  from September 7-8, in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where our President Jacob Zuma attended in his capacity as South African head of state and as the outgoing Chairperson of SADC.Â

Like in other forums elsewhere in the African continent, South African Development Community members came together once again to deliberate the progress on some of its many never-ending experimentation projects and what needed to be further experimented on.

Scientists will tell that an experiment at some stage has to show tangible results that will be applied in real life - a progression from hypothesis to reality. Renown German physicist, Albert Einstein, did not get the name of “Father of Modern Physics” for nothing, he was able to turn many hypothetic theories into things we see and use in today’s technology.

The African Union’s dream of one day having its own African Court of Justice and African Court on Human and People’s Rights remains a pipedream. As long as AU show no political will to punish or isolate the likes of Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir, the union will remain a poor candidate to run its own continent-wide court of justice.  Unfortunately AU decided not to co-operate with the International Court of Justice which wants to prosecute Bashir over the atrocities he committed in his country.

The coming to power of the young President Andry Rajoelina of Madagascar through an army-led coup d’état in March 2009, was not wholly despised by African countries and the AU’s decision to suspend Madagascar was seen as ‘lacklustre’ and window-dressing by many.

Instead of being forth-right and telling Rajoelina to go, AU asked him to organise an election where he tried to be a referee and a player to lead an interim government formed in his own terms while marginalising other leaders.

By allowing Rajoelina to stay on after overthrowing the democratically elected Marc Ravalomanana, AU indirectly played a mid-wife role in Rajoelina’s undermining electoral democracy in the small Indian Ocean nation.Â

AU and SADC are aware that Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe is the stumbling block to the achievement of real political stability and peace in Zimbabwe. Mugabe’s failure to respect and implement the SADC-sponsored Global Political Agreement signed in September 2008 and AU-SADC’s continuation to treat Mugabe with kid gloves is mind-boggling. Just this week he was rewarded by more calls for the West to relax all its sanctions it imposed against Mugabe’s government.

Yet African leaders are aware that illegal farm invasions and harassment of opposition Movement for Democratic Change supporters by ZANU-PF henchmen, never stopped.

Even Swaziland’s King Mswati III, who held the position of the chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation until he handed over the reigns to President Armando Emilio Guebuza of Mozambique in Kinshasa this week[i], needs to be stopped on his tracks. Mswati rules his tiny kingdom with a dictatorship and an absolute monarchy that suppresses political activism.Â

Under Mswati, no opposition parties are allowed and activities of civil society groups are suppressed while opponents are frequently incarcerated. People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) President Mario Masuku is in jail while awaiting trial for some “terrorism” related charges.

But AU and SADC are quiet about Mswati’s rule because they do not want to interfere in any country’s “internal affairs”. The only voice of concern comes from COSATU which has been organising solidarity protests against Swaziland.

The experimentation with democracy in Africa has so far not worked. Those countries have to voluntarily subject themselves to the African Peer Review Mechanism as a part of self-monitoring in itself is an anomaly[ii].Â

Leaders who thrived on tyranny and injustice in their countries will not respect the process because for them the APRM’s requirement for conformity to good corporate governance and democracy might have the unintended but painful consequences to force them off power. Dictators the world over see the practising of democracy and justice as a threat to their practices political survival.

The APRM is clear on its mandate that the policies and of participating states conform to the agreed political, economic and corporate governance values, codes and standards contained in the Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance.[iii]Â

One does not see Mugabe and King Mswati and others like them acceding to these requirements because, should they do, that would mean the beginning of the end of their strangleholds onto power. That both Zimbabwe and Swaziland have not yet subjected themselves to peer-review, is no surprise as they are unlikely to conform to APRM requirements in the near future.

The APRM has its own problems hence its effectiveness has always been under question. Even if a country finally agreed to be peer-reviewed, there is no proper external follow-up.  The tracking of progress is left to participating governments, often to the exclusion of their citizens and civil society organisations.Â

The central APRM institutions - its Panel and continental Secretariat – have limited means to verify what is reported by states (Gruzd: 2009). According to Steven Gruzd many states fail to meet the obligation to make their funding contribution for the smooth functioning of APRM, (thereby rendering the mechanism ineffective, my addition).[iv]

If the AU, SADC and other regional political and economic forum are to avoid being seen as toothless bulldogs, memberships to them should be open only to those who practise democracy and respect the rule of law. The subjection to the APRM process and passing the review, should be a prerequisite for acceptance into AU, SADC and other regional bodies in east, west and elsewhere in Africa. Let democracy and justice be the game that everyone plays in the continent.

A very good example of Africa’s failing experimentations is its failure to turn the Pan African Parliament from and advisory body into a legislative one. PAP has been in operation since its inauguration in 2004 with Dr Gertrude Mongella as its first president.

But to date the parliament remains a talk-shop with no legislative powers. If PAP’s last meeting held in Midrand, South Africa recently, is anything to go by, the parliament is deteriorating into a power-squabbling platform. As a prime target of this political infighting, Mongella herself can tell a better story on this score.

The Southern Africa Customs Union is another troubled project in Africa lack of commitment by member states. Squabbling over trade protocols by member countries had mired the body, which is supposed to ensure the harmonisation of trade regime and subsequently, as some say, to a regional single currency arrangement among member states.

The competing economic interests of the European Union and America continue to interfere with this initiative.[v]Â

Even friendly countries affiliated to the SACU are unable to agree on a common approach to trade negotiations with the EU while US is comfortable in trading directly with an individual country as a tactic to outmanoeuvre EU.[vi]Â

The penetrate on individual SACU countries by the EU and US (Ndayi: 2009) not only had the effect of undermining SACU but also the umbrella Africa Free Trade Zone (AFTZ) that includes all the regional economic forums.

What some describe as “new colonialism of a special type”, the west has pitted the SACU members against one another as South Africa threatened to strengthen customs control to avoid trans-shipment of good from Europe within the region.

The Maastricht lesson...some African commitment

Not that certain member states do not want these organs to succeed. As evidenced by the optimism of South Africa’s Deputy President, Kgalema Motlanthe.[vii] Â

Motlanthe, who while answering a question in parliament recently said: “We are committed to supporting the strengthening of the African Union and its structures. Amongst others, this is evident from South Africa’s engagement in ensuring the establishment of the African Union organs namely; the African Investment Bank, the African Central Bank and the African Monetary Bank as well as the African Court of Justice and Human Rights.

“In this regard, it must be mentioned that Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General of the AU have finalised the Merger Instrument for the African Court of Justice and the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights.”

South Africa, according to Motlanthe, has nominated and was able to get the endorsement of Justice Bernard Ngoepe to serve in the Human Rights section of the court.

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) seems to have taken off very well and there is a strong commitment from AU to see it happening. As one of NEPAD's founders, South Africa is obliged to make it work.

“SA will continue to support the implementation of NEPAD as a blue print for Africa’s socio economic development. NEPAD is part of the African Union’s programmes to intensify the struggle against poverty and underdevelopment on the continent. In this regard SA will continue to support the integration of NEPAD into AU structures and processes,” so says Motlanthe.

The Deputy President pledged to ensure that SA continues to support the implementation of NEPAD programmes and projects at all levels.South Africa would be the last to let NEPAD or its APRM die.

Motlanthe says: “We are committed to meeting our own obligations that derive from the African Peer Review Mechanism and we will continue to encourage other African Union member states to accede to the African Peer Review Mechanism and implement the outcome of the country reviews”.

The question is how to implement the outcome of a review when a peer-reviewed country is left to do its own inspection of the post-review process as Gruzd explained in his assessment of the APRM.If Africa is to progress in any way, it has to stop experimenting and concentrate on how to turn its numerous hypotheses into reality. That should start with African Union and regional forums developing strong backbone about democratisation among their respective members.

After so many guinea-pigs slaughtered, so many scalpels blunted and so many test cubes burnt, it's time for Africa's experimentation to produce results. The stage of "test” or “trial of” or “procedure adopted on chance of it succeeding” or “testing for hypothesis” has to pass if the continent is to get out of its current political and economic quagmire, poverty and underdevelopment.

*Eric Naki is Deputy Editor of Growth Magazine, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.