Pan-African Parliament has lost focus, says analyst

As the Pan African Parliament (PAP) yesterday descended into yet more chaos, political analysts conceded PAP has lost focus on its mandate – exercising oversight on policy and legal matters on the continent.

For a second day in a row this week, there were chaotic scenes at the Midrand continental institution, with MPs screaming at each other and ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina being physically assaulted.

“The shambles we have seen in the past couple of days is a reflection of lack of the PAP exercising its mandate effectively,” said Institute for Global Dialogue political analyst Sanusha Naidu.

“There is a deeper conflict and the interregional competition between sub-Saharan Africa, north Africa, west Africa, southern Africa and between east Africa and west Africa.

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“This deepens internal dynamics of where this institution should be in terms of its governance agenda and accountability.”

Naidu said it was “difficult to say what has been substantively achieved by PAP since its inception”.

“I think South Africa has played an interesting role in terms of creating the institutional architecture for the parliament to be housed in Midrand,” said Naidu.

“It is something similar to the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation being based in developed economies like the United States.

“The institution should play an oversight role around the African Union [AU].

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“The problem is maybe that the parliament can’t do the oversight in terms of legislative powers, being separated from the executive in terms of oversight, monitoring and evaluation on the achievements of the AU 2063 goals in its mission.

“The PAP can also look at the upholding of human rights and do more monitoring of achievements on the silencing of the guns in Africa – holding their own African executives accountable.

“That is where the missing middle is for the PAP – caught between a rock and the hard place, because its institutional power is constrained because AU member states are very strong in the articulation of their sovereignty and interests.

“So, sovereignty undermines subsidiarity and, to a large extent, institutions like the PAP get caught in that crossfire of the sovereign nature of the way the AU is structured.

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“Yesterday, the southern African bloc wanted the whole rotational leadership rotation as it is done in the AU among member states.

“What we have seen was urgency to reflect on the mandate, processes and more importantly on the efficacy of this institution.

“We are living in a place where impunity is much more at play than ever before – governance and people’s rights taking a back seat.