Thank you Chairperson,

My delegation would like to congratulate you for the excellent manner in which you are chairing this Session of the Executive Council.

This delegation would like to commend the African Union Commission and its international partners for taking steps in establishing the African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The newly formed Multinational Task Force charged with the responsibility of establishing the African Centre for Disease Control should indeed work around the clock to finalise its work.

It is our understanding that the mandate for the African Centre for Disease Control is to detect, prevent and respond to diseases at an early stage, to conduct life-saving research on priority health problems and to build capacity on the continent to deal with communicable diseases. 

Chairperson, 

It will require adequate funding to both establish and sustain this Centre. This means that the Member States must commit to adequately resource this centre. 

Whilst most of the communicable diseases, like Malaria, Tuberculosis, HIV and AIDs and more recently Ebola Virus Disease, mainly affect African countries, the capacity to detect and prevent them early, is limited in most of our countries. 

The capacity to develop and manufacture vaccines mainly resides in developed countries, whilst we have the people on which clinical trials are done to prove the safety and efficacy of these vaccines! 

This presents a challenge in that Africa is not able to respond swiftly or adequately to vaccinate preventable diseases outbreaks and pandemics.

Chairperson, 

My delegation would like to stress the strategic importance of the development of vaccine production capacity in Africa, as we are working on the establishment of the African Centre for Disease Control, if our aspirations for a sustainable and effective African Centre for Disease Control are to be realised.

The South African delegation would like to urge Member States to approach public health issues and emergencies such as the Ebola outbreak from a developmental and social perspective.

It is unfortunate that vulnerable groups like women and children are disproportionately affected by diseases, which are mainly preventable. 

It is therefore important for the African Centre for Disease Control to look at the development and implementation of programmes that specifically target vulnerable groups like women and children.

I Thank You.

Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria