Sihlalo obekekileyo, Malungu ePalamente nakubo bonke abakhoyo ... [Hon Chairperson, hon Members of Parliament and everyone present ...]
... I greet you in support of our noble endeavours for a better Africa for all. From its inception, the vision of the Pan-African Parliament, PAP, was to become a legislative body, notwithstanding its current consultative and advisory status. Currently, the PAP is busy moulding its future as a legislative body - a transformed institution that will, as one of the nine organs of the African Union, also ensure a transformed Africa.
Inaugurated on 18 March 2004, the PAP's geographical scope includes that of all the subregional parliaments, but the relationship between the different multilateral parliamentary bodies has not been defined to date. As part of its historic duty, our Parliament has to play a role and contribute to the realisation of a transformed PAP, one that would ensure that Africa became a better place to live in.
It is for such a role and contribution that I challenge this House to consider strengthening regional economic communities and regional parliaments as part of a range of institutions that positively and sustainably impact on an effective PAP. Such transformation goes beyond mere conversion into a legislature and extends to changing institutional culture, such as the enhancement of democratic practices and engaging with the ordinary people of Africa.
One of the frameworks for an effective PAP is the African Economic Community, which is an organisation of the AU for mutual economic development among African states. Currently, there are multiple regional economic communities, RECs, in Africa, many of which have overlapping membership. These RECs consist primarily of trade blocs and, in some cases, there is some political and military co-operation.
Why, then, is there a need to strengthen those regional economic communities and regional parliaments? The geopolitical location of the PAP constrains it from effectively executing some of its duties and functions, now and even into the future. Currently, a good example is the involvement of ordinary Africans and, in the future, effective oversight, as well as its expected role in the harmonisation of policies and laws.
The effective and sustained implementation of the New Partnership for Africa's Development, Nepad, programmes can be done through strengthened RECs, among other strategies. The current endeavours to establish a tripartite trading platform comprising the Southern African Development Community, SADC, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Comesa, and the East African Community, EAC, are worth noting and also commending. Let me remind this House that intra-African trade is still hovering around 10%, compared to intra-European trade, which is above 60%.
Furthermore, we need to take note of the role of the President of our country in the advancement of infrastructure. Without doubt, the regionalisation of his project under the AU, through the RECs, would find more success than anything.
In his argument for regional parliaments as engines of integration and democratisation in Africa, a German scholar on the PAP, Ulf Terlinden, contends: In the course of renewed efforts to complement economic integration with the broader political dimension of regional integration, regional assemblies receive increased attention and have gained in significance over recent years.
A good example is the SADC Parliamentary Forum, formally launched in July 1996. It is the oldest regional parliamentary structure in Africa, albeit informal, hence its restricted mandate. There are plans to transform it into a regional parliament, and yet the adoption of the document and the launching of the full parliament have been postponed repeatedly, partly in order to move in step with the development of the PAP.
In 2004, parliamentarians from 11 SADC countries expressed concern about the lack of progress in establishing a regional parliament, given that the Parliamentary Forum was established back in 1996. Speakers at the meeting noted that a regional parliament would streamline southern Africa's participation in the PAP. It was also felt that a regional parliament would help national law-makers to speed up the adoption of SADC protocols, which currently take up to four years to be ratified by certain states.
With its current membership of 53, the PAP has an enormous task to be effective as a continental legislature. Driving programmes of Nepad, for example, would be more successful with the involvement of the regional parliaments, especially on more localised but collective, regionally based oversight. The same applies to the African Peer Review Mechanism, on the assumption that sooner rather than later more countries will be part of this programme.
Strengthened RECs and regional parliaments have the potential to enhance implementation of treaties and protocols of the AU. Albeit low, the involvement of regional parliaments in the ratification process of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Good Governance is one good example of the impetus of such institutions on the PAP. Most of the RECs form the pillars of the African Economic Community, many of which have overlapping member states.
What is expected of these RECs and regional parliaments? Elections, legitimacy and representations are some of the issues that must take the linkage with regional parliaments on board when crafting the legislative PAP. De-emphasising of narrow national agendas and the enhancement of regional co-operation through collective efforts will have a strong impact on the effectiveness of a legislative PAP. However, such RECs and regional parliaments become the best tools for this.
With regard to peace and security, RECs and regional parliaments in particular could either pre-empt or address security threats before they escalate to a continental level. The ANC is unequivocal that weak and conservative global and continental institutions are not appropriate to support the African agenda, nor to defend its independent voice on global affairs. As long as linkages between the AU and its building blocks, the RECs, are weak, the agenda for a better Africa cannot be realised.
In conclusion, the ANC applauds the contribution of this Parliament and government in their efforts to review the mandate of the PAP with a view to its transformation and the operationalisation of financial institutions provided for in the AU's Constitutive Act, including the African Monetary Fund. Both the RECs and regional parliaments could be drivers of integration in various aspects of African life, as well as being promoters of democratisation, should they be appropriately strengthened. The PAP's role in advancing the African Renaissance could be buttressed by the strengthening of the RECs and regional parliaments.
The ANC maintains that the road to deeper continental unity is through strengthening the RECs, which the AU considers to be building blocks for greater unity. Believing that the unity we create should be sustainable and systematic, the ANC considers a greater focus on strengthening regional integration as providing the surest way, not just to a strong continental unity, but to one that is best poised to respond to the developmental imperatives of the continent.
Lastly, our Parliament is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the outcomes of today's debates find their way into discussions by African leaders at future AU summits. [Applause.]