by Hopewell Radebe – SANF 04 no 86
The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) has spent the first two weeks of its seating sorting out legalities, rules and establishing committees that will guide its responses to the numerous challenges that await its attention across the continent.
This being the first time parliamentary representatives of Africa’s 800 million people are meeting to conduct business, PAP agreed to establish ten portfolio committees to play an oversight role to the African Union’s (AU) priority commissions and councils.
Gertrude Mongella, a Tanzanian member of parliament who was in March this year elected to preside over the new African parliament, acknowledges that people were probably expecting the process in this session to be more vibrant and geared at transforming the discussion of the issues on the African continent.
However, without agreed basic rules and procedures, PAP would have likely collapsed before even starting. She affirms though that the parliament’s objective is to “bring in the voices of the African people”.
It was only logical to first set up rules to govern and unite Africans of different religious, social and ethnic backgrounds to enable them to debate freely — in the five official languages of Arabic, English, French, Kiswahili and Portuguese — vital issues that will excite not only the media but civil society and investors alike.
PAP has therefore worked thoroughly on and adopted Rules and Procedures for the general functioning of the parliament. These will be used as guides in the parliament’s day-to-day operations and in conducting proceedings. A committee dedicated to ensuring adherence to these rules and to determine privileges based on budget constraints was set up with Miria Matembe of Uganda elected its chairperson.
The rules also include a process of accepting and responding to petitions from civil society NGOs and other interest groups such as regional solidarity and lobby structures or international bodies who want to expose undemocratic heads of state or politicians as well as oppressive legislations from any state. Such petitions may be calling on PAP to pronounce itself, investigate or advise the AU to act in a particular manner to such challenges.
When the rules and procedures were finally adopted during the third week of September, members stood up to applaud with Mongella pronouncing at the end of the process that parliament had done well to put measures that will enable it to truly “air the views of the African people”.
In line with AU objectives, the committees set up include the Cooperation, International Relations and Conflict Resolution Committee chaired by E.D. Kante of Guinea; the Gender, Family, Youth and People with Disabilities Committee chaired by B.B. Loice (country not stated); the Justice and Human Rights Committee chaired by Dr Abdel Gamal-el-din of Egypt.
Under the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) programme, PAP has established six related committees such as Education, Culture and Human Resources to be chaired by William Shija of the United Republic of Tanzania; Health, Labour and Social Affairs chaired by Lesotho’s Dr. Khauhelo Raditapole; Monetary and Financial Affairs chaired by Zambia’s P.M. Daka; Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment chaired by Sudan’s Prof. Malik Hussein; Trade, Customs and Immigration Committee chaired by Ledogo Maeba of Nigeria as well as the Transport, Industry, Communications, Energy, Science and Technology Committee chaired by Algeria’s Mustapha Boudina.
Experts have warned that to be effective, PAP must focus on issues it can do something about, rather than looking to replicate the work of the AU.
But, Mongella has encouraged members not to be deterred by skeptics including the fact that PAP has no power to adopt laws. She says its ability to bring together Africans of all political stripes to air views on the plight of their continent is in itself a major stepping stone.
Her remark is based on the fact that the 265-member parliament is seen as merely embarking on an initial five-year formative stage during which its role will be restricted to that of a consultative and advisory body.
For her, this parliament will “put people on their toes. …These MPs are going to ask for accountability,” she says.
Critics also believe that since it has no set budget, this will cripple the body’s operations. Mongella acknowledged this handicap in her opening address and called for the institution to be given adequate resources to achieve its objectives of promoting democracy, unity and good governance.
The host country, South Africa, has so far allocated R61 million from its national budget to help get PAP off the ground. (SARDC)
