PAP’s Acting President calls for unity as Ordinary Session gets underway

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While opening the fourth Ordinary session of the fifth Parliament current underway in Midrand, South Africa, the Acting Pan-African Parliament (PAP) President Hon. Fortune Charumbira described the event as a “great day and date for Africa”, also calling for unity.

 “I am glad that we are back to operations and business following the challenges of the pandemic Covid-19 which collapsed the world,” said Hon. Charumbira.

“It has not been easy; we can all recall that we did not Ordinary Sessions in 2020 following the outbreak of the pandemic. It is a happy day indeed as this day presents us an opportunity to welcome and swear in new members into the parliament. This is their day as well; I am certain that the new members will contribute meaningful to the PAP institution as they already represent Africa in their National Parliaments.”

Hon. Fortune Charumbira highlighted that the unity of PAP will lead to a progressive Africa.

“It is sad that as an institution we are still suffering disunity as a result of the colonisers’ languages that we use. I personal do not appreciate the tone of viewing one another as Francophones or Anglophones. We are all Africans and mandated by Africans who showed confidence in us so this divisiveness that is threatening our institution must fall. We must have a common vision which is to make our Africa conducive and great for our peoples,” he added.

He further appreciated the role played by South Africa as the host country to PAP.

“It has been hard to execute physical activities at PAP as the AU advised that we do hybrid virtual meetings as of now, but we do not have capacity. So South Africa as a country went all the way out and managed to host this current sitting; we must always appreciate the important role the country plays.”

Giving a message of solidarity at the opening, H.E Bene Lofongo M’poko, Ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in South Africa urged the PAP to have viable solutions for the continent.

“The PAP must be self-reliant. It is high time we collectively pledge to solve the continent’s challenges without fail. To achieve this we need to be united. The talk of regional groupings must not be tolerated anymore in Africa. We must speak with one voice as we move forward.”

Former member of the PAP and current South African Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Thandi Modise called on legislators to embrace and respect the spirit of AU.

“The AU speaks the same language and respects its policies. I will be very glad if we all follow the path and spirit of the AU when the day of the PAP elections comes. Let us observe a fact that rotation of regions when it comes to the presidency is a must, this simply means that since the creation of PAP the regions that have held the Presidency office should not run for the presidency. Let us follow on the path of our mother body, if they can why PAP must fail to fulfil this democratic process,” she said.

Hon. Aisha Mambo Adams, the Deputy Speaker of the Malawi Parliament called for a peaceful Africa.

“We need Africa to be free from violence. We need wars to end, we need extremism to end, we need women and children to be protected from Gender-Based Violence,” she said.

Meanwhile, Rt Hon. Justice Dr Patrick Matibini, Speaker of Zambian challenged the PAP to play a major role in efforts to discover an African grown vaccine that will help curb scourges brought by the pandemic Covid-19 across the world.