28 May 2009
Johannesburg — TODAY is election day - but don't feel bad if you
failed to register to vote, can't identify any of the candidates,
or weren't even aware that a poll was taking place so soon after
the national and provincial elections.
Few South Africans - or indeed many other Africans - know or
care much about the Pan African Parliament (PAP), the African Union
(AU) offshoot that is electing new office bearers today for the
first time since its launch five years ago. That is because PAP
(not to be confused with the porridge that is much of the
continent's staple diet) has neither any tangible impact on their
lives, nor a public profile to speak of.
Apart from the occasional domestic news report highlighting SA's
disproportionately high contribution to PAP's multimillion-rand
annual expenses, the body may as well not exist as
far as the average South African is concerned.
One of the reasons for this is that PAP's 265 representatives are
nominated by the legislatures of the 53 AU states rather than being
directly elected, and can therefore hardly be considered
accountable to the people they supposedly
represent. Today's election is an in-house affair that will do
little more than shuffle the cards at the top of the
deck, and even that almost certainly wouldn't have
happened without AU intervention.
Another reason PAP is irrelevant is that it is a legislature
without legislative powers.
These were supposed to kick in after five years (that's nowish),
but like the pesky election requirement there has been little sign
of urgency in the PAP leadership to do much other than arrange
interminable workshops and oversee the distribution of funds and
perks.
That is a shame because, although the legislative function was
always a pipe dream, PAP's stated aim of exercising oversight over
AU activities and offering advice to member states on how they can
comply with the organisation's lofty ideals, might have contributed
to the upliftment of the continent had it been given enough
clout.
As things stand, PAP is a white
elephant - much like its SA-funded R770m compound
in Midrand is destined to be.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200905280113.html
