REGIONAL PARLIAMENT SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED GRADUALLY

Mozambique is in favour of transforming the SADC (Southern African Development Community) parliamentary forum into a regional parliament, but warns that this can only be done gradually. Speaking on Friday during the 29th Assembly of the SADC Parliamentary Forum, held in the Angolan city of Lubango, the chairperson of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, Veronica Macamo said “in relation to the institutionalisation of a regional parliament, we are in favour of gradual change, which presupposes phased steps with the establishment of deadlines”.During her speech to the Forum, Macamo stressed the need to consolidate its existing consultative functions and to strengthen its capacity to make recommendations to other SADC organs, as part of preparing the Forum for more complex functions.According to Macamo, the regional parliament should be independent and autonomous, and will need to cooperate and collaborate with the other SADC bodies and with the Pan-African parliament.As for the members of the regional parliament, Macamo said that these should be drawn from the national parliaments because this system guarantees the most legitimacy and an effective link with the citizens of the member states.On financial sustainability, Macamo advanced the opinion that the regional parliament’s budget should be allocated by a SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government.In relation to quotas for representation, Mozambique wants to maintain, for the sake of unity, the current setup of the Forum, whereby each country provides an equal number of members, irrespective of the size of the national population.Macamo also tackled the question of the regional parliament’s competency and mandate. She said that to begin with, parliament should focus on issues affecting the region as a whole, such as human rights, migration, industrialisation, agriculture, education, and AIDS.She argued that the regional parliament should pronounce about these matters before each Summit of Heads of State and Government.Macamo also expressed concern about events in North Africa, and Libya in particular. She said that certain countries and international organisations were taking decisions in the name of the United Nations, that “threaten the lives of the population of African states, without listening to the region in which they are situated, not even the African Union”.“We have to unite and defend our countries and peoples. We have to have, in fact, a united voice, the voice of Africans. A voice that all should respect, just as we respect the states of other continents”, declared Macamo.