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George Maponga in Masvingo

A delegation from the Pan African Parliament (PAP) led by its acting president Chief Fortune Charumbira has met SADC chairperson and Malawian President Dr Lazarus Chakwera for consultations as efforts intensify to find a lasting solution to problems that have been rocking the pan-African parliamentary body headquartered in South Africa.

Chief Charumbira is acting president of PAP after elections to choose a new leader to replace Mr Roger Nkodo suffered a stillbirth in the wake of divisions within the body over implementation of the rotation principle to ensure all regions across Africa get an opportunity to lead.

The PAP presidency has been dominated by leaders from Central and West Africa taking advantage of their numerical superiority while the body has continued to ignore the principle of rotation that was adopted by the African Union.

The southern and northern regions have never provided a president of PAP ever since the birth of the pan-African parliamentary body and members of parliament from the two blocks successfully blocked holding of elections in May arguing that there would be no elections for a new president without adoption of the principle of rotation.

Also at the centre of the dispute between opposing sides within PAP was the issue of swearing in of MPs from Mali and South Sudan as PAP members yet in Mali there is no legitimate constitutional Government following a coup.

South Sudan MPs have also not yet been sworn in their country.

Chief Charumbira and his delegation met President Chakwera at State House in Malawi last Friday for consultations since the Malawian President heads SADC which is one of the key regional blocks that constitutes PAP building blocks.

Speaking after meeting President Chakwera, Chief Charumbira said the meeting “was to brief and consult him in his capacity as regional chairman with regard to developments at PAP.”

The consultative meeting also comes in the wake of a meeting this week at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia by the permanent representative council (Ambassadors) and Executive Council (Foreign Ministers) that is expected to make resolutions and come up with a roadmap to a PAP session set for November.

The meeting between President Chakwera and Chief Charumbira’s delegation comes as the acting PAP president is now shoo-in to be substantive leader of the pan-African parliamentary body after the African Union Commission threw its weight behind the rotation principle for the presidency of body.

PAP came into being in 2004 and since then, its leaders have come from either West or Central Africa, prompting some MPs to push for the “no rotation no election” mantra to break that stranglehold.