An
Extraordinary Meeting of the SADC Parliamentary Forum Executive Committee and
Speakers of SADC PF Member Parliaments to address the leadership crisis at the
Pan African Parliament (PAP) has been scheduled to hold on 01 February 2024.
The meeting will be hosted by the Parliament of South Africa and will take
place at the Century City Conference Centre, Cape Town, in the Republic of
South Africa.
Reacting to the
development, PAP Second Vice President, Hon.
Dr. Ashebir W. Gayo described the planned meeting as interference by the
SADC PF in the internal affairs of the PAP.
But the SADC PF is
said to have ignored Dr. Gayo’s objection
and will proceed with the meeting. According to the source, “Dr. Gayo cannot dictate to the SADC PF how
to conduct its business or what to do. We will not allow him to extend his
dictatorial big brother attitude to the SADC PF”.
According
to the SADC PF “The decision to convene the Extraordinary Meeting stems from a
submission made by the Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of South
Africa, Hon. Nosiviwe Mapisa- Nqakula,
who is the Host Speaker of the PAP. In her submission, Hon. Speaker Mapisa-Nqakula emphasized the urgency
of the crisis at the PAP, requiring the attention of all SADC Member
Parliaments. This urgency is heightened by the fact that the presidency of the
PAP is presently held by a Member of Parliament from a SADC Member Parliament
on behalf of the region, in accordance with the rotational principle”.
“In
light of these circumstances, Hon. Speaker Mapisa-Nqakula
called on the Executive Committee and Speakers of SADC PF Member Parliaments to
engage in an endeavour to resolve this matter for the greater good of the
region and the continent.”
According
to the statement, the meeting has been deliberately convened ahead of the
African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government scheduled for 14th –
18th February 2024 which is expected to deliberate and map the way forward on
the crisis at the PAP.
“It
is envisaged, therefore, that the resolutions arising from this Extraordinary
Meeting will be tabled to the respective SADC Heads of State for consideration
and possibly to guide deliberations at the AU Assembly.”
Hon. Dr. Gayo’s reaction to the SADC
PF extraordinary meeting, through his self-appointed Acting Clerk, is
ill-advised. Pundits have wondered how a meeting convened by a body that
includes the Speakers of National Parliaments of SADC countries to discuss the
situation at PAP could be described as interference. They posit that the
Members of the Pan-African Parliament, according to Article 5.1 of the PAP
Protocol, are designated by the respective National Parliaments of Member
States in accordance with the national laws of such Member States. The tenure
of members of the respective members of National Parliament is determined
according to the electoral laws and Constitutions of Member States. The
doctrine of sovereign equality of states, recognized by Article 4.a of the
Constitutive Act of the African Union, precludes Dr. Gayo or indeed any other AUC official from contesting or
interfering with such designations.
Pundits
also note that the activities of the Members of the Pan-African Parliaments are
funded through the National Parliaments of Member States such that the Speakers
of National Parliaments have a legitimate interest to convene meetings to
discuss issues relating to the crisis at PAP and take a common position. That
is the beauty and essence of democracy. They advised that instead of attacking or
seeing the meeting as interference, Dr.
Gayo should have tried to secure an audience to address the meeting.
On
the role of the “Acting Clerk”, they posit that as the head of the Secretariat,
the Clerk should ensure that the Rules of Procedure of the Pan-African
Parliament are adhered to. He should not lend the office to become a willing
tool that will be used to trample upon the Rules. For example, Rule 6(5)
states: “Where the National Parliament or
any other deliberative organ of a Member State notifies the Clerk that the
status of the elected or designated Member has become incompatible with
membership of Parliament, the Clerk shall notify the Bureau and the President
shall declare before the House that the membership of the person has been
terminated”
They
thus wondered whether the “Acting Clerk” received any communication from the
Parliament of Zimbabwe informing PAP that Hon.
Chief Fortune Charumbira’s status is no longer compatible with membership
of the Pan-African Parliament. Can he also point to any record of proceedings
of PAP where such vacancy was declared before the plenary? Does he not
appreciate that there are procedural safeguards to ensure that declarations of
vacancies are not made to achieve narrow political objectives as is currently
the case?
The
President of the Parliament, Hon.
Fortune Charumbira ran for and won re-election on 23 August 2023 and the
Parliament of Zimbabwe has since September 2023, written to confirm his
continued and uninterrupted designation to the Pan-African Parliament. So PAP
is bound by Articles 4.2 and 5.1 of the PAP Protocol to accept the designation
of the members designated by the Parliament of Zimbabwe to PAP. All the
frivolous allegations against him cannot stop his resumption of office as only
the members of the Pan-African Parliament who overwhelmingly gave him their
mandate can withdraw the mandate if allegations of misconduct against him are
established, supported by two-thirds of all Pan-African Parliamentarians.
Once
a plenary session of the Parliament is convened, oath will be administered before
any other business including before any election is conducted. All country
delegations must without exception be sworn in. All the scheming and
manipulations to exclude some people from the activities of the Parliament is
bound to fail. Compliance with the provisions of Rule 37 on “Sequence of
Proceedings and Order Paper” is mandatory. Rule 37 states:
Rule 37: Sequence of proceedings
and Order Paper
(1)
The proceedings
of the House shall, where applicable, be conducted in the following sequence:
(a)
opportunity for silent prayer or meditation;
(b)
communication
from the chair;
(c)
administration
of oath;
(d)
election of
President and/or Vice-Presidents;
(e)
petitions;
(f)
papers;
(g)
notices of
motion;
(h)
questions of
which notice has been given; and
(i)
business of the
day.
(2)
The Clerk shall
prepare the Order Paper setting out the sequence of proceedings and order of
business and shall circulate it at least four hours before the commencement of the session.
Chairpersons of
the five Regional Caucuses at PAP have also punctured Dr. Gayo’s claim that amendments to the PAP Rules of Procedure “were
adopted in haste and without meeting the quorum threshold in the plenary, timed
strategically before the elections in Zimbabwe, DR Congo, and South Africa”.
One of the Chairpersons described the allegation as baseless and most uncharitable
especially coming from someone who was a member of the Bureau at the time the
amendments were adopted.
According to the Regional Caucus Chairpersons, the “amendment
of the Rules of Procedure by the Pan African Parliament was undertaken in
furtherance and in compliance with numerous Executive Council Decisions including
EX.CL/1364(XLI) of July 2022 that directed PAP to “urgently review the Rules of Procedure to ensure alignment with
African Union values, rules and regulations as well as established practices of
the Union, including the principle of geographical rotation”. Other
Executive Council decisions include EX.CL/Dec.979(XXXI),
EX.CL/Dec.1018(XXXII) and EX.CL/Dec.1128(XXXIX) that reiterated the
application of the African Union values, rules, and regulations in managing all
activities of the Organ, including the principle of geographical rotation of
the members of the Bureau inclusive of the Presidency”.
They
also state that it is a matter of record that the Executive Council in Decision EX.CL/Dec.1198(XLII) commended
the PAP for the resumption of work following the June 2022 elections of the
Bureau and appreciated the activities implemented by the Pan-African Parliament
within a short time period in 2022, in spite of limited budgetary resources.
These activities included the adoption of amendments to the Rules of Procedure
in compliance with numerous Executive Council decisions dating back to 2016.
In a recent memo to the Permanent Representatives
Committee (PRC), the Regional Caucus Chairpersons wrote: “In order to get back
on track, it is important to underscore and recognize the fact that there was
no crisis at PAP when
the amended Rules of Procedure of the Pan African Parliament were suspended by
the Chairperson of the AUC. In fact, indisputable evidence, including the commendations
by the Executive Council, supports the fact that the Bureau was united in
pursuit of their mandate”.
“Even
the Minister of International Relations and Co-operation of the Republic of
South Africa, Hon. Naledi Pandor, in
officially opening the PAP-PRC Retreat in December 2022, commended the
leadership of the Pan African Parliament under Hon. Chief Fortune Charumbira, for steering the PAP towards a
positive trajectory that sought to enhance the institution’s effectiveness in
the continental governance matrix and its responsiveness to the ideals, hopes
and aspirations of the people of Africa.”
“The
seeds of the current crisis were sown when a deliberately misleading and
malicious complaint was filed by Hon Dr
Gayo whose quest for the Presidency of PAP, against the principle of
geographical rotation, pushed him to truncate the leadership with a
self-manufactured and manipulated dispute. Regrettably, he was aided in his
nefarious agenda by the AUC whose authority and jurisdiction over PAP’s
internal Rules of Procedure or interpretation of the Protocol are disputable”.
“The
amendment of the PAP Rules was borne out of the need to enable the PAP to
address the institutional instability and uncertainty arising from National
Parliamentary transitions and in fact, give practical application to those
provisions in the PAP Protocol and the Rules of Procedure that relate to the
Status of Members of Parliament as encompassed in Article 12(8) of the Protocol
and Rule 8(1) of the Rules of Procedure. The language of the contested
provisions of Article 5 of the PAP Protocol is the same as the language of the
amended Rule 8(1)(e), while Article 12 of the Protocol is the same as Rule
8(8)(e) of the Amended Rules”.
It
is noted that according to their respective Rules of Procedure, the Decisions
of the Assembly and the Executive Council are binding on all the organs,
departments, agencies and Member States of the AU, including the Pan-African
Parliament. Does PAP require quorum to comply with the decisions of the policy
organs of the AU? In any case, the record of attendance on 04 November 2022 will
show that there was indeed quorum.
It
is regrettable that since 2016 when the initial directive was issued by the
Executive Council, the AUC Chairperson did not make any effort to get PAP to
amend her Rules of Procedure. Even when the Executive Council in October 2021 specifically
directed that PAP’s 2022 Bureau election be conducted in South Africa observing
rotation, the AUC Chairperson delayed the implementation of the directive until
he was forced to comply by the Bureau of the Assembly.. But he was quick to
intervene and override compliance with the Council’s directive to urgently amend
the Rules of Procedure of PAP.
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