by Barbara Lopi
Problems faced by southern African governments in their pursuit to integrate national and regional policies might be alleviated following the commitment of Speakers in the region to establish a joint Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Forum.
The Parliamentary Forum, initiated at a SADC gathering in Namibia three years ago, and endorsed at last August’s Heads-of-State Summit in Johannesburg, appears to be an essential device for procuring ground information and analytical frameworks for negotiating political compromises toward realisation of the regional body’s aims and objectives.
The Forum comes amid complaints that parliamentarians have been left out of the development dialogue in the region. With the advent of plural politics in southern Africa, advocates of democracy have been arguing that the success of democratic systems depend on mutual collaboration of legislators in the region.
Speakers or deputies from the 12 SADC member states, who met in Windhoek, Namibia in mid-July, noted that active involvement of parliamentarians in the regional body’s activities was a vital tool to strength the implementation capacity of SADC. “Some of the decisions taken by SADC may require the passage of legislation by our national parliaments, as elected representatives of our peoples,” says the Windhoek Protocol signed by all of the Speakers.
SADC Executive Secretary, Dr Kaire Mbuende, is confident that the Forum will boost regional development and serve as a way of broadening people’s participation at grass-roots levels in the region, thereby encouraging cooperation and common understanding of the challenges for development in southern Africa.
The Forum is expected to formulate common policies to be translated into domestic laws by individual parliaments. “Already we have agreed on common policies relating to issues like the curbing of money laundering, drug trafficking and agricultural development strategies for the region,” Mbuende says.
Speaker of the Zimbabwean National Assembly, Cyril Ndebele, believes the commonality of issues in southern Africa makes the Parliamentary Forum relevant, because it will serve as an advisory body to the SADC secretariat on issues affecting the region as well as providing a forum for discussion on matters of common interest to member countries.
The Namibian National Assembly speaker. Dr Moses Tjitendero, who is the Forum’s interim chairperson sees its establishment as an “indication of the region’s determination to face social, political and economic problems with honesty and courage.”
The Forum’s interim organs include the executive committee the secretariat, a plenary assembly and standing committees that would be expected to discuss adequately the problems in the region and provide possible compromises and solutions. The interim executive committee consists of the 12 Speakers or presiding officers of SADC parliaments whose chairperson and vice will be elected by members from the said executive committee.
Under the interim plenary assembly the executive committee is empowered to convene plenary Sessions of the Forum consisting three members of parliament (MPs) from each parliament and an official from each parliament. The interim Plenary Secretariat will consist of a Secretary-General, Research Officer, Legal Officer and a Secretary.
Since the Forum constitution adopted at the consultative meeting in May last year, has not been ratified the Windhoek Protocol has given all parliamentarians an opportunity to submit proposed amendments and/or redrafts to the working draft committee by November 30 this year.
The interim plenary assembly is expected to hold a meeting in January 1997 to refine the draft constitution for submissions to all MPs for consideration, with a view to ratification by June 1997.
Among other things the Forum will enable parliamentarians to share experiences more relevant to one another than experiences northern MPs might offer. Besides providing a common platform to parliamentarians in the region, the Forum will also act as a catalyst in bringing SADC closer to the people and help to strengthen regional solidarity.
Critics have argued that the task to display commitment and trust in SADC among its member states has not been met, almost 16 years since the regional body was established “because some policymakers including parliamentarians who represent the grassroots and different communities do not adequately understand the goals of SADC.”
Parliamentarians too have for long been expressing the need for a mechanism to provide them with information and relevant data to enable them contribute meaningfully in national and regional debates.
It is expected that the Forum will attend to this dilemma by organising information seminars on various topics to sensitise parliamentarians on issues affecting SADC.
A workshop hosted by the Zimbabwe Parliament and organised by Canadian Parliamentary Centre, and the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) in June last year to explore the needs and options for parliamentarians in the region revealed the need for parliamentarians to be provided with an efficient information support structure to ease their work and speed the process of legislation.
Parliamentarians in five countries namely, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. As well as the speaker of North-West province in South Africa, said they lacked research and information backup to meet the challenges they face as legislators. It was observed that due to this lack of information flow parliamentarians “often see legislation only when it is tabled and thus are unable to make informed decisions in parliament. Substantive comments on changes to government policy or legislation are difficult to make.”
The Forum will have the task to assist in this area by putting in place a mechanism to help MPs deal with issues that are topical, at national and regional level. With countries in the region working to rebuild various economic technical and political structures, the need to avail parliamentarians with relevant information on topical issues is real as governments cannot afford to make mistakes based on lack of access to information. (SARDC)
