Spotlight Pan-African Parliament
national parliaments dilutes their power further as their nominations compromise their independence in the PAP.” But Zwelethu Madasa, the clerk of the
PAP, offers a more optimistic view, and disagrees with the notion that without legislative powers, the PAP is ineffectual. “Tat’s a wrong analysis,” he emphati-
cally told New African, adding at length that: “Tat type of thinking does not make sense, because we have a mandate. It’s a misconception of a parliament and I think that is the root cause of that kind of thinking. “A parliament is both a legislative in-
stitution and a debating institution and many other things besides. A parliament debates, and it doesn’t have to make laws. I am a lawyer, and I am very sceptical of law making. Tere are very few and lit- tle examples where laws change people’s lives, there’s too much emphasis on law- making.” He adds: “I think this debate is influ-
enced by the MPs’ frustrations with the executive, it’s more a competitive issue between a legislative organ and an execu- tive organ, an attempt to get power and so on. To me, these are power issues. And I don’t want to put too much emphasis on power issues, they’re relevant but I think we overemphasise them.” Madasa insists that the issue at heart is
about helping ordinary people. “I accept the debate but the issue really is that our parliament, the PAP, can serve the people with what it has, and I think the crime on the continent is that everyone is saying ‘let’s make laws’. “But nothing precludes the PAP to
comment on any issue in any manner. So it’s not a matter of ‘no, we don’t have legislative powers therefore, I, as a PAP member of parliament, cannot say [Lau- rent] Gbagbo must go… What I am saying is that if you understand that a parliament is more than a law-making body, then we should understand that we could be effective without law-making, especially at this stage. “For example, when there’s something
happening like the situation in Libya or elsewhere, we don’t need legislative powers to say what we want to say. We are allowed to say whatever we want.” As if the whole Assembly were listening
to Madasa, on 18 May the PAP passed a strongly-worded “motion on the security
62 | June 2011 New African African Charter objectives:
Respect for democracy and human right
Promotion of the rule of law and respect for the supremacy of the constitution
The holding of regular and fair elections that results in legitimate representative governments as well as the democratic change of government
Rejection of unconstitutional change of government
The independence of the judiciary Political pluralism and tolerance
Promotion of regional and continental integration
Citizen participation, transparency access to information and freedom of the press
Promotion of gender equality in governance and development
Promotion of gender equality in governance and development
Promotion of best practices in election management.
‘One Africa’ is loaded with optimism”
situation in Libya” which said, among other things, that the PAP had followed with “interest and sadness” the ongoing military operations in Libya, which had led to the deaths and injury of many peo- ple in that country and the destruction of its infrastructure (see box on p. 61 for full motion). In fact, the Libyan saga and other re-
cent political conflicts in Africa were issues that were also taken up by the PAP presi- dent when he said the promotion of peace, security and stability in Africa, remained a core tenet within the Assembly’s objec- tives. Tus, “the seeds of instability in sev- eral African countries constitute a threat.” According to him: “Te people of Africa are calling for democracy with all their
“The PAP’s slogan
might… We are aware of the causes of discontent: unemployment, social divide, corruption, marginalised youth, freedoms that are won in dribs and drabs, authori- tarian leaders who hang on to power for too long and whose personal wealth defy understanding vis-a-vis the poverty and suffering of the masses. “As the upheavals started in Tunisia
and spread to Egypt, and now in Libya, our people have called on us as their rep- resentatives to do something. Te African Union is neither deaf nor blind to this, but unfortunately, it has its limitations,” Dr Ndele told his fellow parliamentarians at the opening of the 4th Session of the Second Parliament of the PAP. Indeed, it is those limitations and the
admissions by both the PAP’s president and the clerk of Parliament that there are a lot of hurdles yet to be overcome, that fail to win more enthusiastic support for the PAP. Tese limitations include budgetary constraints. Te PAP’s budget comes from, and is, dictated by the African Union. As such, the PAP has no direct control over its budget, hence critics say this forces the PAP to be subservient to higher powers – the heads-of-state-led executive. Other challenges include the PAP’s
powerlessness to legally effect its deci- sions, and the lack of elected membership (which leads to a high turnover of MPs; new members are sworn in at every session to replace those who lose in their national elections). Another challenge is the lack of a strong institutional capacity. However, the PAP’s slogan “One Af-
rica, One Voice” is loaded with optimism, and with just seveh years gone since its inception, many people agree that the PAP is still in its embryonic stage. In line with the new political dispensation sweep- ing across the continent, the PAP has de- cided to reset some of its priorities – one of which is to champion the campaign for full ratification of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance which was adopted by the African Union to encourage the promotion of democ- racy and good governance in its member states. Te document must be ratified by 15 countries before it takes effect. “Te PAP is focusing on this issue, with
all its strength. So far, we have nine out of the required 15 countries for ratification,” said Khalid Dahab, the senior media rela- tions officer of the PAP.
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