Parliament, Wednesday, 24 November 2021 – The Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Mr Amos Masondo, has urged all African Commonwealth parliaments to leverage their shared history and traditions to promote respect for all states and peoples in the 21st century.
Delivering his vote of thanks today to conclude the official opening ceremony of the 17th Commonwealth Speakers and Presiding Officers Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, Mr Masondo said that encouraging impartiality and fairness among parliamentary office bearers on the continent is key to the effective functioning of democratic parliaments.(Audio clip: https://tinyurl.com/5xxzyty4)
Mr Masondo leads a South African delegation, including the Speakers of the Gauteng, Northern Cape, Limpopo and Western Cape provincial legislatures. He urged all members of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) in Africa to spare no effort to advance citizens’ “inalienable right … to participate in democratic processes”.
This could be achieved, he said, by translating the ideals contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant human rights covenants and international instruments to the lived realities of people. He also encouraged “tolerance, respect, understanding, moderation and religious freedom, which are essential to the development of free and democratic societies”. He added that peaceful, open dialogue and recognition of gender equality and women empowerment are essential elements of human development. (Audio clip2: https://tinyurl.com/3hknnvu7)
The African continent should prioritise the unity of the people to enable it to claim its rightful place in global affairs and participate equally in human development, in trade and in broader economic development. When it comes to global crises and challenges, richer nations prioritise their own people, as graphically represented by the “pre-ordering of billions of doses as a means of securing advance access to Covid-19 vaccines, something which placed low- and middle-income countries in a predicament”.
He urged Africa to build its capacity to address its own crises, disasters and challenges, as “one should not get burned twice by the same flame”. (Audio clip 3: https://tinyurl.com/8dyvmks)
The biennial conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers did not meet in the past two years because the Covid-19 pandemic. The South African delegation includes Speaker Ntombi Mekgwe of Gauteng, Speaker Newrene Klaaste of Northern Cape, Speaker Masizole Mnqasela of Western Cape and Speaker Rosemary Molapo of Limpopo. The conference will deliberate on the expectations of African parliaments in the 21st century.
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