‘Too Soon’ for PAP to Get Legislative Powers

Wilson Johwa (The Weekender)--The Pan African Parliament (PAP) is due for a major review that may result in the continental legislature assuming limited oversight powers. Based in Midrand, the institution completed its first five years this month.

In terms of its founding protocol, it is due to decide what direction to take, potentially enabling the body to play more than the advisory role it enjoys. Some among its members feel the PAP is nearly ready for legislative powers, but blame vested interests in its mother body, the African Union (AU), for slowing its progression. ‘They are not allowing us to play our role,’ says Sunil Dwarkasing, a Mauritian MP. Dwarkasing is a member of a special committee set up by the PAP to prepare for the review of its protocol. He says the AU has constantly accused the PAP of flouting its processes and procedures, yet presented no evidence. ‘They have to tell us, we are ready to correct.’

However, the PAP has previously clashed with the AU over the payment of per diems to its MPs. It disregarded AU instructions to stop making such payments, arguing that many MPs come from poor countries and would otherwise be unable to attend the two annual sessions. At its January summit, the AU slashed the PAP’s budget by 22 per cent. ‘We are very disappointed, but we are not going to give up,’ Dwarkasing says.

Of the 53 AU members, 46 have officially ratified the PAP. This allows each national legislature to nominate up to five PAP MPs, at least one of whom must be a woman. The AU instructed its commission to carry out a comprehensive study of the PAP protocol ahead of the summit in July. Dwarkasing fears the proposed assessment on the future of the PAP will not take account of the views of those already connected with the institution. ‘We want to be involved in every step,’ he says .

PAP spokesman Khalid Dahab feels the institution is ready for bigger responsibilities, including assuming legislative powers. ‘Our people are working on how to turn this institution into a fully legislative organ, but the decision lies elsewhere,’ he says. However, Saki Mpanyane, an analyst at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), says the PAP is still far from becoming a continental legislature. ‘I don’t see how — given the uneven development of legislatures across the continent — the PAP cannot get full powers from the word go. How long did it take the European Union (EU)?’ A clear impediment is the presidency’s power over parliament in most countries.

But Mpanyane believes member states may opt for a compromise and grant the PAP some powers in areas that don’t threaten ‘the sovereignty of countries’. This would enable it to work closely with the AU while ‘gaining powers in a gradual way’. Yet before it gets to grips with the question of transformation, the PAP may have to resolve more immediate issues, especially the lack of administrative capacity. It is still to find a new clerk after deciding not to renew his contract, along with that of a deputy. A more pressing issue for the institution is the term of office of the five-member executive, known as the bureau. It is unclear at what point they will vacate office — an issue that also came up at the previous session in December. ‘If the term of this parliament is up then the term of the bureau should be up, but it’s not clear,’ says Mpanyane.


The bureau consists of the president and four deputies, each of whom represents a region. The current PAP is not explicit on their term of office. At its January summit, the AU urged the PAP to ‘urgently fix a term limit for its bureau’. It also said new elections should be held ‘immediately’ to renew the mandate of the current bureau or elect a new one. The PAP’s next session is scheduled for May. The PAP was established as one of the nine organs provided for in the treaty establishing the African Economic Community signed in Abuja, Nigeria, in 1991. Some have felt it should not have been created ahead of the proposed continental government, or at least in isolation from the other organs of the AU. ‘What made the EU effective is that at the same time that they started establishing the community, they also established a court of justice,’ Mpanyane says. Although an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights exists, it is weak and has too limited a jurisdiction to support the PAP.


As the host country, SA appears to have lost enthusiasm for the PAP. It was expected to begin work on its permanent home, also in Midrand. There is no word on when construction will start on the multi million-rand project. The completion date was initially meant to be April next year. Dahab says the project is still going ahead. While the PAP has the potential to provide a crucial forum for good governance, its main failure has been its inability to popularise itself. In addition, it has not created a continental vision among its MPs, who — having been nominated by national legislatures — mainly represent their narrow national interests. ‘One of the failures of the PAP is that there is no mechanism for evaluating the impact members have in their own countries to promote what they do here for three weeks,’ says Mpanyane.

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