The President
of the Pan-African Parliament, H. E. Hon.
Chief Fortune Charumbira has said that the Media Capacity Building Workshop
organized by the Parliament is a deliberate attempt to ensure that the media is
an integral part of the process of reviving, renewing, repositioning and reinvigorating
the Pan-African Parliament.
H. E. Hon. Charumbira stated this in his
keynote address to the Media Workshop organized by the PAP over the weekend at
the seat of the Parliament in Midrand, South Africa.
The
workshop participants included members of the Steering Committee of the African
Parliamentary Press Network (APPN).
“The
Bureau of the Pan African Parliament is acutely aware that we cannot achieve
our new strategic thrust of reviving and repositioning the Pan African
Parliament within the continental governance matrix without rebranding the institution.
Rebranding, as
you are well aware of, is the process of changing the corporate image of an
institution to create a different identity. Our desire to rebrand the Pan
African Parliament, to create a different identity, is both a proactive and
reactive initiative” he said.
He informed the workshop
participants that the Strategic Reorientation Workshop recently organized for
the members of the parliament gave time
to “brutally self-introspect, earnestly assess where we have come from, where
we are, where we want to go and how we can get there. One of the means of
getting where we want to go is, of course, proactively rebranding the
institution”.
Charumbira regretted that public
perception of the Pan African Parliament and, indeed, the African Union as a
whole, is very unflattering, especially so after the aborted PAP elective
session in May 2021.
“As an institution and as a Bureau, we have
thus made a deliberate decision to rebrand, to change our corporate identity,
and we cannot do that without the help of yourselves, the media”.
“We invite you to come with us as we begin this
difficult journey of rebranding the Pan African Parliament. We invite you to
report on the positive thrust that we have started on by ensuring equity and
justice throughout all the structures of the Pan African Parliament, by
adhering to the principle of geographical rotation. Never in the Pan African
Parliament’s history, has each Region held the Chairpersonship, Deputy Chair
and Rapporteur of at least two Committees as the Bureau of the 6th
Parliament has done”.
“We invite you to buttress the call for unity and
togetherness that is an abiding value of the founding fathers and to help us
get rid of artificial divisions arising from colonially imposed languages and
superficial differences. Equally importantly, we implore you to give us a
fighting chance through positive reportage as we try to address a legacy of
administrative inefficiencies, non-compliance with AU principles and values,
and growing questions over our impact and relevance”.
“We, therefore, need the press as an
ally as we embark on the process of rebuilding the image of the PAP. In fact, one
of the common challenges articulated by Members of Parliament through the
respective Regional Caucuses is that PAP is not visible and is generally not known
amongst the African Citizenry. The press, therefore, remains indispensable in
acting as a vehicle of information dissemination in the continent and beyond
even in the face of a dynamic and evolving media and technology environment”.
“we are also cognizant that in order for
you to effectively cover parliaments in general and the Pan African Parliament
in particular, you need to have an intimate appreciation of parliamentary
processes and procedures, the origin, mandate, Rules of Procedure, membership
and structure, among others. It is also important for you to understand the
process involved in discharging the duties assigned to the institution and its
role to “promote human rights and
consolidate democratic institutions and culture, good governance transparency
and the rule of law by all AU organs, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and
Member States.”
“I say this with particular reference to
the aborted May 2021 elective session as a classic case in point of the need
for capacity building of the media. Admittedly, the session rightly attracted
negative media coverage as it should have. However, there were notable discrepancies and factual
inaccuracies in the reporting, thus displaying the confusion around basic
details about the PAP. It thus dawned on us that it was imperative to convene
regular workshops of this nature to ensure that the media has a basic appreciation
of the Pan African Parliament and its operations so that reporting is factual
and accurate. With the media’s power to control the minds of the masses it
would be unfortunate, nay tragic, to do so based on factual inaccuracies and
half-truths that are peddled as fact. It is my hope, therefore, that this
workshop will engender a better appreciation of the Pan African Parliament and
its processes and procedures so that you are better able to report on what we
do and heighten the visibility of the PAP in the continent and beyond”.
“The journey towards rebranding the PAP
begins now. We are your elected representatives and we are all in this
together. Let us help each other to project a positive image of Africa and its
institutions to a sceptical and disbelieving world. In your reporting, always
bear in mind that you are the voice of Africa to the world and our operative
mantra should always be “One Africa, One
Voice” he concluded.
In
his welcome remarks, the Acting Clerk of the Parliament, Mr. Gali Massa Harou, stated that the training organized by the
PAP’s Media and Communication Unit was of great importance.
“The
PAP is a continental public institution with a mission of expressing the
concerns and aspirations of the African people. The media, in turn,
disseminates the information. The media is an important partner as highlighted
in the African Governance Architecture which is meant to promote democracy,
democratic governance, and the rule of law. Thus, the media is the vehicle to
disseminate information and activities of the PAP as well as the aspirations of
the African people. The workshop is a platform for the media to acquaint
themselves with Parliamentary activities and initiatives as well as to convey
information about African people’s aspirations. The workshop will be an
important step towards achieving the objectives of the PAP,” he said.
In
his presentation titled Overview of the
AGA Platform”, African Governance Architecture (AGA) Embedded Expert, Dr. George Mukundi disclosed that the
African Governance Architecture supported the PAP media training workshop. He used
the opportunity of his presentation to trace the formation of the African Union
(AU) and the subsequent birth of the Africa Agenda 2063 and the African
Governance in 2013.
The
PAP Legal Counsel, Clement Mavungu
made a presentation on “Introduction to the Legal and Institutional Framework
of the Pan-African Parliament” while Mr.
Ibrahim Jagne, Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at the Parliament,
made a presentation on “Pan-African Parliament Strategic Plan”.
The
Executive Director of Parliamentary Network Africa (PNAfrica), Mr. Sammy Obeng, made a presentation on
“The Role of Parliament and the Media in Promoting Parliamentary Openness.
In
her closing remarks, the Third Vice President of the Parliament, Hon. Lúcia Maria Mendes
Gonçalves dos Passos (Mrs) implored the workshop participants to henceforth
be messengers of the Parliament and promised to mobilize the necessary
resources to ensure the implementation of the objectives of the workshop.
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