Southern African countries will soon have uniform laws which will be enforceable across all 14 Southern African Development Community member states when a regional parliament is formed, possibly next month.
This was revealed on Monday by SADC Parliamentary Forum vice-president Joseph Njovuyalema at the Fairmont Zimbali Resort in Ballito, where the organisation’s week-long plenary assembly is taking place.
Njovuyalema said all the African sub-regions had regional parliaments, but the south still operated as a forum.
He said they were hopeful that the heads of state summit next month would see the formation of the new parliament.
“We have the regional executive and tribunal but are still missing the third arm, which is the regional legislature,” he said.
The regional laws will be debated by all national assemblies, rectified and domesticated to form part of the legislature of SADC member states.
During the opening ceremony of the plenary assembly on Sunday, President Jacob Zuma expressed his support for the formation of regional policies.
“Within SADC there have been relatively low levels of ratification of SADC protocols, delaying implementation and advancement of the regional integration agenda. The transformation into a regional parliament will support in addressing these gaps,” he said.
With the red carpet rolled out and the ultimate in five-star treatment, 100 delegates from southern African states are attending the week-long assembly which takes place twice a year.
They will be holding discussions under the theme of “Industrialisation and regional integration in SADC: The role of parliaments.”
“The challenges we face as Africans will never be European or American, therefore solutions to African problems should primarily come from Africans,” said Njovuyalema as he expressed his concerns over Africa’s net exports being raw materials, and over the failure to expand the manufacturing sector which could increase job opportunities.
“Africa is resource-rich, but it is sadly the poorest continent in the world.”
He said the delegates would also debate and adopt motions brought forward by some of the forum’s committees.
These include the criminalisation of HIV transmission because of non-disclosure.
This is already part of South Africa’s legislation, but countries like Zimbabwe are still unable to use the law against those who infect others by not disclosing their status.
However, the National Assembly Speaker, Baleka Mbete, said all the SADC leaders had been calling for the regional parliament, so she doubted that there would be conflict over regional policies.
Monday’s session began with discussions on migration, and development experts, such as the Human Science Research Council’s Professor Monde Makiwane and Prof Adebayo Olukushi, gave presentations.
KwaZulu Natal Premier Senzo Mchunu also addressed the delegates on the recent xenophobic attacks which saw thousands of foreigners fleeing their homes in townships around Durban.
Mbete described the attacks as tragic and said migration and statelessness needed to be addressed across the continent.
“As a person who was displaced by apartheid once, I must say that I’ve been deeply moved by the countries who have taken in arrivals even though they struggle to make ends meet.”
She said migration was inevitable, so citizens needed to stop viewing it negatively, and an overall regional policy was needed.
The Mercury