Africans look to the Pan African Parliament (PAP) to help them escape from poverty and underdevelopment, South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday.
”The masses do not need anybody to inform them about their conditions and the history they have had to endure,” he told the opening of the PAP’s second sitting at Gallagher Estate in Midrand.
”They want you, their elected representatives, to give them the possibility to control their institutions. They want you … to help them to change their material conditions so that they escape from the jaws of poverty and their countries and continent from the clutches of underdevelopment.”
The eyes of Africa will be focused on the PAP as it carries out its work during this second sitting — from Friday to October 7, Mbeki said.
”These masses are interested to know what this brand-new institution will mean to them. They want to know whether you will meet their dreams and their hopes, to give birth to the humane Africa that has eluded all of us for so long.”
Mbeki said the PAP creates a new space for Africans to forge a collective identity and act together in their own interest.
Africans have already expressed the determination to extricate themselves from poverty and underdevelopment. Now is the time to put in place what has been decided.
”We face the challenge to make the determination within ourselves that the resolutions we pass have no meaning unless we translate them into action.”
The arrival of the PAP is a proud moment for Africa, he said.
”It is a moment that gives us hope that sooner rather than later the entirety of the people of our continent will express the reality of their own situations with the words — Africa’s time has come!”
Mbeki said the mobilisation of the masses is crucial to the victory Africa has to achieve. Peace, democracy and justice will only take root when the masses themselves are active agents of change.
He expressed regret that the issue of self-determination for the people of the Western Sahara remains unresolved.
”This presents all of us with the challenge to ensure that we do everything possible to ensure that these sister people also enjoy this fundamental and inalienable right, whose defence by the entirety of our continent brought us our own freedom.”
Mbeki thanked the African Union for choosing South Africa as the PAP’s permanent host.
Earlier, PAP president Gertrude Mongella called for the institution to be given adequate resources to achieve its objectives of promoting democracy, unity and good governance.
Hundreds of delegates, many dressed in colourful traditional attire, attended the R7,3-million opening of the PAP’s second sitting — the first in its new permanent seat of South Africa.
Before the official programme, guests and delegates were treated to cultural and music items by groups from around the continent.
Forty-six countries have ratified the PAP protocol to date, each of which elected five PAP members.
Guests at the opening ceremony included presidents Abdul Kalam of India and Chikage Oogi of Japan, as well as representatives from the East African Legislative Assembly, the Association of West African States, the Southern African Development Community and the AU.
New PAP members were sworn in before the start of the official opening.
Police pulled a security cordon around the hall hosting the opening ceremony when about 300 protesters arrived to press for democratic reform in Zimbabwe.
Protesters carried placards reading ”We need food not violence”, ”Democracy now” and ”Restore our basic freedom”.
A spokesperson said the group comprised Zimbabweans who fled their country for South Africa because of poor living conditions.
They came to plead with the PAP to put pressure on President Robert Mugabe to restore the rule of law and human rights in his country, said Jabu Mkwanazi.
A petition handed out by the group speaks of a ”chronic democratic deficit” in Zimbabwe.
”We have been stripped of our basic freedoms; freedoms we fought a liberation for,” the document states.
It calls for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, saying current conditions are not conducive to such.
”Zimbabwe is our home, we want to go back but we are prevented from doing so by the criminal failings of a government which has lost touch with the people and abandoned the principles which guided our liberation agenda,” the petition reads.
”We are calling upon our fellow Africans to help us move toward a new beginning and create a new Zimbabwe, which is a true reflection of the one we envisaged when we were fighting for independence.” — Sapa