Charumbira takes over as Acting President of the Pan African Parliament

The Pan African Parliament (PAP) has announced that Hon. Chief Fortune CHARUMBIRA (Zimbabwe) has taken over as the Acting President of the continental parliament with effect from 1 March 2021.

According to a press statement by PAP’s Media Officer Jeffrey ONGANGA, the designation is pursuant of Article 12(4) of the Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community relating to the PAP; and Article 18(2) and Article 19(1) of the PAP Rules and Procedure.

Hon. Charumbira is the Fourth Vice President of the continental Parliament representing the Southern African Region. By this development, Hon. Charumbira will assume the responsibilities of the office of the President until the next Plenary Session of the PAP in May 2021, when a full Bureau is expected to be reconstituted.

He takes over from Hon. Bouras Djamel, whose term as member of the National Peoples’ Assembly of Algeria has come to an end following an announcement, last month, by His Excellency Abdelmajid Tebboune, President of Algeria to dissolve the Lower House of Parliament and call for an early legislative election.

Hon. Charumbira has been a member of Parliament of Zimbabwe since 2000. His political career began in the House of Assembly from where he moved to the Zimbabwe Senate in 2005.

He was elected into the Pan African Parliament in 2005 and was Chairperson of the PAP Committee on Administrative, Financial Evaluation and Performance Evaluation (CAFE) from 2009 till his election as the Fourth Vice President of the Parliament in the October 2018 plenary held in Kigali, Rwanda.

It was the work of this CAFE as then constituted and Chaired by Hon. Charumbira that had been credited with reviving the financial health of PAP and restoring the confidence of donor/development partners in the funding architecture of PAP programmes and missions.

Charumbira has more than 20 years experience as Institutional Change and Leadership Development Consultant in both the public and private sectors. Prior to being appointed Deputy Minister of Local Government (Zimbabwe) in August 2002, Chief Charumbira had managed several institutional change and leadership development projects in Eastern and Southern Africa. His experience in managing public sector reforms includes Institutional Diagnosis, Strategic Planning, Organisational Restructuring, Job Analysis and Job Evaluation, Change Management, Installation of performance management systems, Training Impact Assessment, Local Government Reform, among others.

He holds a Masters in Consulting and Coaching for Change from the European Institute for Business Administration (INSEAD), Havard Master of Business Administration (MBA) UZ, B.Sc (Hons) Administration (with focus on Administrative Law and Labour Law)-UZ and currently working on PhD Thesis. He is a renowned expert in Labour law, Administrative Law, Institutional Change, Performance Improvement and Leadership Development.