A senior South African official however told the Financial Gazette that many African countries would soon find out that most of Gaddafi’s proposals were "impractical".
For instance, the official said, the Libyan leader’s push for the chairman of the AU to be based at the organisation’s head office would have meant that Mbeki, the new head of the continental body, "abandons his job in South Africa and moves to Addis Ababa".
The controversial Gaddafi also scuttled Mbeki’s plans to shut out the Zimbabwean crisis from hijacking the summit by jumping onto the podium at Durban’s King’s Park Stadium, venue of the official launch of the AU on Tuesday, and shouting:
"My friend Mugabe, forgive the whites. They are now poor . . . Forgive them . . . You are free . . . You are bigger than them. We are mighty."
In a way, the summit ended Mugabe’s isolation from the international community, with the effervescent Obasanjo publicly saying he had been "encouraged" by the "atmosphere" at a meeting of the two on Tuesday night.
Obassanjo, a member of the three-nation Commonwealth task force charged with resolving Zimbabwe’s crisis, said Mugabe had also met the club’s secretary-general Don McKinnon and UN secretary-general Koffi Annan on the sidelines of the summit.
For instance, the official said, the Libyan leader’s push for the chairman of the AU to be based at the organisation’s head office would have meant that Mbeki, the new head of the continental body, "abandons his job in South Africa and moves to Addis Ababa".
The controversial Gaddafi also scuttled Mbeki’s plans to shut out the Zimbabwean crisis from hijacking the summit by jumping onto the podium at Durban’s King’s Park Stadium, venue of the official launch of the AU on Tuesday, and shouting:
"My friend Mugabe, forgive the whites. They are now poor . . . Forgive them . . . You are free . . . You are bigger than them. We are mighty."
In a way, the summit ended Mugabe’s isolation from the international community, with the effervescent Obasanjo publicly saying he had been "encouraged" by the "atmosphere" at a meeting of the two on Tuesday night.
Obassanjo, a member of the three-nation Commonwealth task force charged with resolving Zimbabwe’s crisis, said Mugabe had also met the club’s secretary-general Don McKinnon and UN secretary-general Koffi Annan on the sidelines of the summit.