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Zvamaida Murwira in Midrand South Africa
Pan African Parliament President Fortune Charumbira has today launched the continental body’s strategic reorientation workshop where he set out the tone meant to reposition the organisation in accordance with its founding values.

The three-day workshop, running under the Theme “Reviving, Renewing, Repositioning and Reinvigorating the Pan African Parliament,” is being attended by Members of Parliament from across the continent and it drew several experts from different sectors.

In his keynote address, Chief Charumbira said the workshop was meant to remind members who they are as PAP members.

He said the public perception of PAP had not been good and it was time to put it back on its rail.

The PAP boss said there has been overwhelming rejuvenated support from many stakeholders that including the African Union, and African diplomats following an election of a new Bureau in June this year which saw him being elected as President.

This was after an initial effort to hold elections failed as legislators were bickering on procedural issues, particularly whether the principle of rotation should be applied or have an open election.

“The interest in PAP is quite amazing. You can see a lot of Ambassadors coming to congratulate us. There has been 100 percent support for PAP funding,” he said.

Chief Charumbira was elected in June after the African Union asserted its authority and directed that elections be held in a manner that observed the principle of rotation of regions in terms of the Organisation’s constitutive Act.