The
President of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), H.E. Chief Fortune Charumbira has informed African Ambassadors who
are accredited to the Republic of South Africa that PAP is back to full functionality
after the leadership crisis that engulfed the Parliament from August 2023,
H.E Chief Charumbira gave the
assurance on Thursday during a meeting with the Ambassadors to brief them on
the program for the Third Ordinary Session of the Parliament which begins on
Monday 24 June at the precincts of the Parliament in Midrand, Johannesburg.
He welcomed the African Ambassadors to what he
described as the first meeting after the 25 March, 2024, election session where
the President and First Vice President were re-elected. With the full Bureau in
place, this signaled that PAP is back to full business.
Chief Charumbira reaffirmed the
importance of the Ambassadors to the PAP “as the eyes and ears of Member States
on the ground and seized the opportunity to clarify some issues which had
dragged the name of the Parliament into disrepute.
In
introducing the members of the Bureau of the Parliament, Chief Charumbra pointed out that the only change has been the
replacement of the Fourth Vice President, Hon.
Francois Ango Ndoutoume of Gabon by Hon.
Djidda Mamar Mahamat of Chad following the military coup that resulted in
the suspension of Gabon from the African Union (AU)..
He
maintained that that the return of the 2022 elected members of the Bureau, with
the exception of Hon. Djidda, attests
to the confidence that the PAP Parliamentarians have in the leadership of the
Bureau and its ability to steer the PAP to effectively fulfill its mandate of
“ensuring the full participation of African peoples in the economic development
and integration of the continent.”
The
President acknowledged that the persistent conflicts within PAP since its
establishment have damaged the image of the institution in the eyes of an
already skeptical citizenry stressing that PAP has a lot of work to do to
repair this tainted image.
“PAP
as an institution suffers from collateral damage every time there is a conflict
within and among its membership. For example, the false and malicious
allegations of misappropriation of funds and recruitment of a ridiculously
large number of support staff leveled against me, gave the impression that PAP
is a decrepit, lawless institution with ineffective administrative systems
which can be easily be manipulated by one person”.
He
observed that these malicious allegations, which were flaunted as fact in the
public domain, backed by a shameless contrived audit were targeted at ruining
the reputation of the President and diminishing his support among the PAP MPs
and the public with the ultimate objective of unseating him. Unfortunately, by extension,
they also ruined the public’s perception of the institution to the extent that
one Foreign Minister bluntly said that PAP is perceived as “an institution of
hooligans.”
Chief Charumbira assured the
Ambassadors that all the allegations of financial irregularities against him were
frivolous adding that he welcomes the AU Board of External Auditors to conduct
a forensic audit on the accounts of the Parliament as directed by the Executive
Council.
He
regretted that in driving this false narrative PAP MPs scored an own goal as
the relevant AU Organs often ride on these conflicts and allegations to deny
PAP the resources that it needs. Logically, who among us would like to sink their
money into an institution in which US$3 million can be stolen by one person?”
He
urged the Ambassadors as representatives of Member States of the Union, to
assist PAP in drawing the attention of the relevant organs of the AU to PAP’s
funding challenges facing PAP. “In line with Article 14(2) of the PAP Protocol
as read with Rule 28 of the PAP Rules of Procedure, the PAP convenes two statutory
Committee Meetings in March and August and two Plenary Sessions per year in May
and October/ November.”
“Since
the establishment of the PAP, the cost of convening one Committee Sitting has
remained fixed at US$800000. Therefore, for the two Committee Sessions per
year, the PAP requires US$1,600,000. However, only US$530 000 has been provided
for the two Committee Sittings for 2024. This amount is not even enough to
convene one Committee Sitting.”
“Similarly,
the cost of convening one Plenary Session has remained fixed at US$1,300,000
translating to a total of US$2 600 000 for the two plenary sessions per year. Again,
only US$900, 000 has been provided for the two Plenary Sessions for 2024. This
amount, regrettably, is not enough to hold one plenary session”.
“These fixed costs were respected from 2004 until
2021 when the Budget was reduced to US$11,887,700. However, the PAP was on an
enforced hiatus in 2021 up to June 2022 owing to the global COVID-19 pandemic as
well as the suspension of parliamentary activities following disagreements on
the principle of rotation. Therefore, the institution was not affected by the
budget reduction.”
“Unfortunately,
when the PAP returned to full functionality in June 2022, the budgets for 2023
and 2024 were not revised to reflect the institution’s return to full
operational functionality. In fact, the 2024 Budget was further reduced to
US$10 570 625. At such a low level, it means PAP cannot conduct any meaningful
business. The Committees cannot conduct business and cannot even hold statutory
meetings. Plenary cannot meet and the Bureau cannot function fully”.
“If
the PAP does not get a supplementary allocation from the AU, it will not be able
to host the August Committee Session as well as the October/November Plenary
Sitting as the entire budget has exhausted in funding this Plenary session.”
The
President therefore appealed to the Ambassadors for support by engaging their respective
Heads of State and Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC) members to lobby
for an increased budget for PAP.
In
his speech, the Dean of African Ambassadors, His Excellency, Ambassadors Andre
Nzapayeke congratulated Chief
Charumbira on his election during the 25 March 2024 election and assured
him of the support and cooperation of the Ambassadors in the Parliament’s quest
to fulfill her mandate.
In
his contribution, the Ambassador of Egypt to South Africa, His Excellency Ambassador Ahmed El Fadly advised the Parliament to
ensure that the frequent crisis experienced by the Parliament becomes a thing
of the past as it will be difficult to seek budget increases when the
parliament is always in crisis. He condemned a situation where the African
Union Commission is trying to transform itself into a supra-national
organization with powers over all the other organs and observed that the
African Union did not adopt the European Union Commission model. On the funding
challenges facing the Parliament, he suggested that the Parliament should consider
adopting the UN model where translators are only used during statutory meetings
while English is used in all non-statutory meetings. Such a measure will reduce
the budget for translation services. Other Ambassadors expressed concern over the
African Union Commission’s penchant for interfering in the administration and
management of the affairs of the Pan-African Parliament and other organs of the
Union.
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