The Southern Africa sub-region of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Africa Region says it is displeased with the United Kingdom’s hesitancy to legislate the change of the association’s corporate status into an international organisation.
This is the view of delegates at the 52nd CPA Africa Region Conference, currently taking place in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Since the official commencement of the conference on Monday, the question of the organisation’s official status has taken centre stage.
Led by National Assembly Deputy Speaker, Lechesa Tsenoli, who sits on the CPA Africa Region Executive Committee, the Southern Africa sub-region — consisting of Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and its nine provincial legislatures — convened to consolidate its position on the issue of the CPA’s corporate status.
Tsenoli said the current status of the CPA is unacceptable, as it disadvantages Africa and its allies.
He said the conference is in preparation for the upcoming international conference in Canada, where the issue of the change of status from a charity organisation into an internationally recognised organisation would be dominant, so that Africa may be granted observer status in the United Nations.
“Currently, we can’t be allowed because we are effectively registered as a charity organisation in the United Kingdom and have no diplomatic status or recognition internationally.
“Only the British Parliament can legislate the organisation’s change of corporate status. However, the reading of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Bill in the British House of Lords has prorogued, and the Bill will not make further progress.
“If the people inside the United Kingdom Parliament are not persuaded, it is not going to happen. We must find several ways to communicate our displeasure, disagreement and rejection of the current status of the CPA so that it is changed into something worthwhile,” Tsenoli said.
Tsenoli assured that they will not break rank with the rest of the African continent on this campaign and intend to stay in until they succeed in changing this status.
Tsenoli warned that in the event that the organisation collapses, the money can only be used in the United Kingdom, “which is unacceptable”.
“I think the CPA Africa Region contributes close to 60% of the budget of the CPA, and these monies come from our Parliaments, and we have authority to draw on it to undertake programmes in our own branches of the CPA across the board, including gender equality, pursuing the involvement of women in politics, and attending to rural-urban dynamics.
“Our approach to the work inside this organisation is what our country regards as its foreign policy – participating in multilateral organisations, in order to contribute our own share of ideas and solutions on multilateral problems that affect Parliaments from across the world, and to pursue our own African agenda as the Africa Region,” Tsenoli said.
The African Region of the CPA comprises 63 national and subnational legislatures, with a mission to promote and protect the interests and perspectives of African Parliaments and countries in the Commonwealth and beyond, and to promote gender equality, emancipation of women, and respect for human rights, freedoms, democracy and good governance.
The 52nd CPA Africa Region Conference is held under the theme: “The role of African Parliaments in building an inclusive society to counter growing insecurity in Africa”.
The conference is exploring and sharing ideas and perspectives on how to strengthen democracy in Africa.
It brings together 400 delegates, observers and other participants from CPA Africa Region Member States – including South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Mauritius, Nigeria, Ghana, Eswatini, Cameroon, Namibia, Malawi and Tanzania, as well as 16 sub-branches (nine from South Africa and seven from Nigeria).
The conference, which ends on Thursday, is expected to fill vacant positions during the Executive Committee’s Annual General Meeting in preparation for the International Conference to be held in Canada in August.