South Africa is at the centre of a major international row over the decision by parliamentarians of the European Union (EU) to bar two Zimbabwean cabinet ministers from taking part in a joint African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP)-EU parliamentary assembly in Brussels.
Although Belgium allowed the Zimbabwean ministers to enter the country, the group of EU parliamentarians attending the joint assembly - due to start on Monday - decided they would not be allowed on the premises of the EU.
This is in line with a visa ban on senior officials of the government of President Robert Mugabe.
Both sides met on Saturday in a bid to avert a boycott of the event by the 78-nation ACP delegation.
Continues Below ↓
| Bid to avert a boycott of the event |
The South African delegation holds the view that Zimbabwean ministers should be able to attend international events. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the foreign minister, said last week that South Africa would work to have international sanctions against Zimbabwe lifted.
Frene Ginwala, the speaker of the national assembly, said from her home in Cape Town on Saturday that the deadlock in Brussels was not about Zimbabwe but about the principle of the European parliamentary delegation deciding unilaterally about the attendance of certain members when decisions should be taken jointly by the ACP-EU assembly.
"They can't unilaterally take these kinds of decisions because it is a joint assembly," Ginwala said.
It was the responsibility of the hosts - the European parliament - to come up with an alternative venue if they were not prepared to allow the Zimbabweans on their premises. She said there were no provisions in the joint assembly's rules to exclude anyone.
"It's normal international practice that if you are hosting an international gathering of this kind you cannot cherry-pick who you want to be there," she said.
| 'The attitude of the European parliament is unacceptable' |
"Next they will want to exclude Iraq from attending international gatherings."
Rob Davies, the South African parliamentary delegation leader, said from Brussels yesterday that the bureau of the joint assembly had met in a bid to break the deadlock and were due to report back to the joint assembly today to consider compromise options.
Davies said that one option being considered was to hold the assembly at an alternative venue in Brussels, outside the precinct of the European parliament.
AFP reports that Paul Mangwana, the Zimbabwean minister of state for state enterprises, and Christopher Kuruneri, the deputy minister for finance and economic development, are already in Brussels and are scheduled to attend the meeting that starts tomorrow.
"The attitude of the European parliament is unacceptable," said Haitian-born ACP spokesperson Hegel Goutier.
MEP Glenys Kinnock, the co-president of the ACP-EU assembly, said she hoped the ACP group would attend the meeting.
"There are clear imperatives which we face at this time and I certainly hope that the ACP will feel that their participation in the [ACP-EU] joint parliamentary assembly is a priority which transcends all other considerations," she said.
"This decision [to ban the Zimbabweans] has been taken after serious and lengthy deliberations and is, I believe, based upon the need the European parliament feels to be consistent with the resolutions we have agreed regarding Zimbabwe," she said.
But members of the EU (MEPs) insisted the visa ban must also cover the ACP-EU meeting, sparking an angry response from the grouping.
A decision whether to boycott the ACP-EU joint parliamentary assembly will only be taken after Saturday's meeting.
Pat Cox, the European parliament president, said the decision by leaders of the EU assembly's main political groupings had his "full backing".
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
