The Sunday Mail
The Pan African Parliament (Pap) could soon assume legislative powers after members resolved to transform the consultative body into a full-fledge continental Legislature.
The resolution should be ratified by a minimum of 28 member states to become effective.
If the proposal is endorsed, Pap will legislate a single African currency; continental passport and stand-by army.
It will also checkmate the International Criminal Court on the prosecution of African leaders.
Zimbabwe’s Pap representative and Zanu-PF’s National Assembly Chief Whip Dr Joram Gumbo told The Sunday Mail that Pap took the decision when it met last month.
He said the resolution “was an endorsement of what African Heads of State agreed on earlier this year”.
“We sat at the Pan African Parliament in South Africa and one of the resolutions was for our organisation to have legislative powers.
“However, for this to be implemented, it has to be ratified by a minimum of 28 states, which have to adopt the protocol and deposit their ratification with the African Union.
“I will move a motion soon, calling on our Parliament to ratify and adopt this protocol. It is the Heads of State who will determine what will be enacted into law.
“The legislative powers will make the Parliament African Parliament more powerful as a body.”
Pap was established by Article 17 of the African Union’s Constitutive Act in 2004.
It is one of the nine organs provided for in the treaty establishing the African Economic Community, signed in Abuja, Nigeria, in 1991.
Its original mandate was advisory and consultative, and legislative powers were due to be conferred after five years.
However, this transformation has stalled with indications that some members fear Pap could pass laws that are ultra vires the national objectives of individual states.
At the AU Summit in June, African Heads of State and Government agreed to ratify “as expeditiously as possible” Pap’s transformation.
