Pan-African Parliament gives S. African president thumbs up as AU chair

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 03:03 pm

The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) on Friday said there are confident the African Union (AU) would make progress under South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s chairship.

PAP said they have confidence in Ramaphosa steering the continental body in the right direction.

“The election of South Africa as the incoming chair in February 2019, raised our hopes as direct beneficiaries of the Host Agreement between the African Union and the Government of South Africa,” said PAP President Roger Nkodo Dang.

He said the optimism of the continental Parliament stems from President Ramaphosa’s recent pronouncement of his approach, which will focus on building a “politically stable Africa, empowerment of women and an economically growing continent”.

Nkodo Dang stated that Africa continues to draw inspiration from South Africa’s institutions of governance and a functional parliamentary democracy. He pointed out that they will learn from South Africa as they try to make PAP a “prime institution of governance on the African continent”.

Ramaphosa officially became the AU chair last week at the the AU Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Pan-African Parliament is one of the legislative body of the AU which is based in South Africa.