Leaked information from South African sources reveals confidential plans afoot to permanently remove the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) project from under the remit of the Commission of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa and establish it as an autonomous legal entity to be located in the Republic of South Africa. A 17th November 2003 letter to the AU Commission from Professor Welshman Nkhulu, the South African chairperson of the NEPAD Steering Committee, proposes the establishment of a ‘Forum for the Implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development’ with its own legal persona that is separate from and independent of the AU secretariat.