The African Union’s role in spreading democracy should be credited in making Africa the fastest growing region in the world, said South Africa’s chief diplomatic representative here a week before commemorating his country’s first post-Apartheid elections in 1994.

“The African Union has championed spreading democracy. Twenty years ago there might have been five countries that could be called democratic. Out of the 54 countries in Africa today, it would be fair to say that 95 percent are democratic,” said Hilton Anthony Dennis.

South Africa commemorates its democracy on its National Day, called Freedom Day, which takes place on April 27.

“(Democracy) is a factor and an important one,” he said in an interview with The Korea Herald at his office in Hannam-dong in Seoul on Wednesday.

Now 55, Dennis said he cast a ballot as a citizen for the first time in his life 19-years ago in those post-Apartheid elections, and believes he and his country were only then truly “liberated” from colonial rule. “South Africa was the last nation in Africa to be liberated from colonial rule.”

Through the 1990s and 2000s, and most recently in the pro-democracy Arab Spring, African nations turned toward elections as the way to decide thorny political decisions.

That trend was borne out by successful Kenyan elections which saw a change in government and Uhuru Kenyatta sworn in as the East African nation’s new president this month.

There were other African elections in which incumbent leaders accepted defeat, too. Zambia’s Rupiah Banda in 2011 and Senegal’s Abdoulaye Wade in 2012 saw losing challengers heeding the verdict of the ballot box and the courts.

Dennis said democracy and economic development went together, and that the African Union deserved some of the credit.

“The African Union emphasized ending conflicts, good governance and democracy as a strategy for development. African countries created good conditions for stability and development,” he said.

Some of the fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa. The trend looks to likely continue, too.

Based on figures from the International Monetary Fund, 10 of the world’s 20 nations with the highest projected annual growth rate are in Africa, many with double-digit figures.

Despite a plethora of daunting challenges, including violent crime, severe inequality, a massive 25 percent of workers unemployed and labor unrest, South Africa is still Africa’s largest economy and most influential country.

South Africa is now finally leveraging its heft into regional integration issues with the African Union.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, an experienced diplomat and South African President Jacob Zuma’s former wife, was elected by the pan-African bloc’s 54 member countries to serve a four-year term as chairwoman of the African Union’s commission, its executive arm.

As a stable democracy and the region’s largest economy, South Africa occupies a powerful position among African nations. The country’s campaign to win the AU leadership role created sharp differences among the continent’s top leaders.

South African officials lobbied aggressively for Dlamini-Zuma despite an informal arrangement that the chairmanship be held by one of Africa’s smaller nations. Her victory could lend more diplomatic heft to the African Union, which has appeared divided and weak in recent crises in the Ivory Coast, Libya and, most recently, Mali.

The importance of the Africa for democracy and economic growth in the world is under-appreciated by Koreans, Dennis said.

“The G20 has this vision of a world consisting of nodes of world economic growth. The leading one today is, of course, Asia. But a new kid on the block, so to speak, and an emerging node of world economic growth is Africa,” he said. “Many Korean people do not know this.”

But that is changing with Korean interest in Africa booming in recent years. Seoul hosted the “Third Korea-Africa Forum” in October. The largest confab yet brought together 150 delegates from 19 African nations including heads of state and foreign ministers.

“Korea is on the right road by creating a strategic partnership in the Korea-Africa Forum. It has a set of objectives and it has a strategy of expanding Korea-Africa relations,” he said. “The emphasis now should be on implementing what we agreed on last year.”

The ambassador described Korea’s relationship with Africa as strategic. “Africa has that kind of a relationship with only four or five countries in the world,” he said. “Africa sees meaning in the Korean model of economic development.”

As a nation with few natural resources of its own, Korea looks to Africa as a new source of raw materials. South Africa’s major export to Korea is minerals used in producing rhodium, platinum, manganese, bronze, aluminum and ferrochromium, which is major component in the production of stainless steel. Korea is one of the largest steelmakers in the world.

Korea exports cars and vehicle components, diesel fuel, cell phones and construction equipment to South Africa. Two-way trade reached $5.4 billion in 2011, according to the Korean Embassy in South Africa.

Economic ties could expand into energy this year. South Africa is keen to enlarge its use of nuclear-generated electricity over the coming years according to the country’s Integrated Resource Plan that was outlined in 2011 with medium- and long-term electricity generation goals.

The South African IRP plan aims to bring 9.6 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity online by 2023 with the construction of six to eight new plants. That would expand the share of nuclear in South Africa’s electricity production seven fold in two decades from the current 5 percent to 35 percent.

South Africa will tenure bids for the first three or four plants by the end the year. Korea is expected to aggressively compete for the new deals against such nations as France, Japan, China and the United States.

By Philip Iglauer (ephilip2011@heraldcorp.com)