From Institute For Security Studies. Analysis by Liesl Louw-Vaudran.

It was whispered in the corridors of the Sandton Convention Centre, muttered under his breath by a former president and referred to (jokingly?) by Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe.

However, at last week’s African Union Summit, the third-term bids by Africa’s presidents — one of the major threats to stability on the continent — remained the elephant in the room.

The 25th A.U. Summit was overshadowed by the debacle around Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and the failure of South Africa to carry out an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court. Al-Bashir — who incidentally has been in power for 26 years — flew back to his country on June 15.

In the run-up to the summit, observers and analysts said a strong statement by A.U. leaders about limiting presidential terms in Africa could go a long way to avert political instability on the continent. In countries like Burundi, the DRC, the Republic of Congo and Rwanda, the uncertainty around term limits and the determination by opposition and civil society to fight against third terms, have become cause for concern.

…During his opening address, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe made a point of rejecting presidential term limits — another idea imposed by outsiders that will be “a yoke around our necks…In Europe they don’t have two terms, so if people want you to stay on, why not?”

…”Let us learn to be brotherly and principled and refuse to cause trouble for our people,” Mugabe concluded.

Read more at Institute For Security Studies.