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Thupeyo Muleya 

Beitbridge Bureau

Parliamentarians from Sadc have thrown their weight behind Chief Fortune Charumbira who is vying for the Pan African Parliament (PAP) presidency tomorrow.

The Zimbabwean representative is the current vice president of the PAP and will be contesting against a candidate to be submitted by the North African region.

In separate interviews delegates from Namibia, Mozambique and Zambia said they were all rallying behind a candidate from the Sadc bloc.

The Mozambican head of delegation, Mr Aires Ali said, “We have strong support for our candidate from Zimbabwe, Chief Charumbira and we believe that we must unite as Sadc parliamentarians and vote for him”.

He said the legislators from both FRELIMO and RENAMO had agreed to back a candidate from the Sadc region.

“It’s important to have a president coming from SADC. Our region must be represented across Africa and we are praying that the southern region grabs this opportunity to bring new ideas to the new ways of doing things and support our governments.

“We need to add value and governance and we believe Chief Charumbira has vast experience on these matters, we cannot do that,” said Mr Ali.

He said Sadc leaders had built and good leadership legacy which should be spread across Africa.

Chief Charumbira’s campaign manager, Mr Mc Henry Venani who is the leader of the opposition in Namibia said they had covered enough ground marketing their candidate across Africa.

He said the tempo on the ground was pointing to a victory for the Sadc region.

Mr Venani said Africans should see beyond the idea of who is leading, but should converge and share ideas on how to address obtaining socio-economic issues in member states.

“We are very confident and I must say that the matrix is in order for the campaign,” he said.

“So far, we have been working very hard around the continent consolidating the message of a united Africa, one voice, one people, and the quest to revive the African Union in areas where it is failing in its mandate.

“The PAP as a consultative assembly must move with one vision of creating model laws for Africa that guide governments and people around the continent on how to handle socio-economic issues among other pressing matters”.

Zambia’s head of delegation, Mr Miles Samba said everyone in his team had agreed to support Zimbabwe.

“We are backing Zimbabwe and what we are taking back to Zambia is that as single nations there is a need for consultations and we must continue to engage each other,” he said.

“Ultimately, we will find each other finding solution. We are picking up a lot from the PAP through interactions with various representatives from the rest of Africa.”