Pretoria: South Africa will persist in its role as a dedicated advocate for the essential reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), aiming to address what it sees as longstanding inequities in the international system, said President Cyril Ramaphosa.

According to South African Government News Agency, President Ramaphosa, addressing the National Assembly, highlighted the disproportionate representation within the UNSC, pointing out that although African nations constitute about a quarter of all UN member states, none hold a permanent seat on the Security Council. This imbalance, he remarked, becomes particularly problematic when African issues are deliberated by the UNSC.

During his speech, President Ramaphosa referred to the discussions at the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, noting some recognition from current permanent members of the Security Council that Africa deserves two permanent seats. However, the issue of veto power and its allocation remains unresolved. He underscored South
Africa’s influential role in advocating for the recently adopted Pact for the Future, which commits to urgent reform of the Security Council.

The President emphasized the broader implications of UNSC reform, calling it “vital to global efforts to advance peace and stability.” He criticized the current configuration of the UNSC for failing to prevent or resolve numerous conflicts, citing ongoing issues in the Middle East, Sudan, the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and between Russia and Ukraine. According to him, these failures have had particularly severe repercussions on the African continent and the global South, which often bear the brunt of social and economic turmoil originating elsewhere.

Furthermore, President Ramaphosa challenged the present global political and economic landscape, which he believes reflects a bygone era and fails to represent contemporary realities. He advocated for adherence to the Ezulwini Consensus, which calls not only for two permanent and five non-permanent African seat
s on the UNSC but also for the abolition of the veto power. Until such abolition, he argued, the veto should be a right extended to all new permanent members.