Parliament News Digest 25 June:

1. Changes to the Budget Votes
2. Letter to the Editor on mob killings by Rev Kenneth Meshoe
3. Mighty Madasa speaks on the translation of the SADC Parliamentary
Forum into a regional parliament

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1. ACDP changes votes on Home Affairs, Social Development, Independent
Complaints Directorate and Housing

The ACDP changed its vote to support the budgets for Home Affairs, Social
Development, Independent Complaints Directorate and Housing. Although MPs
agreed to support the budgets, they indicated that they had reservations
about whether the relevant departments were functioning as they should. The
department of housing was criticised for its slow delivery of houses to the
poor while numerous reports of corruption and financial mismanagement have
also interfered with the building of houses.

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2. Letter to the Editor: Mob killings a wake-up call to government

The recent reports of mob killings and vigilante justice across the country
are a clear sign that communities desperate to stem crime in their areas no
longer trust the police to do their jobs.

Yet the irony is that those who resort to vigilantism are arrested quicker
than the criminals who caused them to resort to such tactics. Where is
justice?

Members of the public are encouraged to come forward with information to the
police, yet in many cases, if the police do not pass on that information to
the criminals, then they do not follow up on the leads they are given by the
public. This is why communities close ranks and refuse to offer information
to the police about the attacks - they no longer trust the law.

Last year my constituency office was broken into and a lot of equipment
stolen. When I was told that no investigation was taking place, I appealed
to the director in charge of the Vosloorus police station for help, but to
no avail. I then phoned the SAPS headquarters in Pretoria on a few
occasions to get help, but only got empty promises.

When I phoned police headquarters in Pretoria to ask that this case be given
to another investigating officer, I was told to wait and they would come
back to me. All I got from them was deafening silence. I even had to close
down my constituency office because the investigating officer told us that
he did not think that the members of my staff were safe in that office. So,
we had no choice but to move offices.

Members of communities under siege resort to such extreme measures because
they do not have a government that is protecting them. If government does
not want to see an increase in vigilantism, then they must pull up their
socks. An increase in mob justice is nothing but a wake up call to
government to take drastic measures to end crime before the nation slides
into anarchy.

Revered Kenneth Meshoe, African Christian Democratic Party leader

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3. The translation of the SADC Parliamentary Forum into a regional
parliament

African Christian Democratic Party MP Adv Zwelethu (Mighty) Madasa

The translation of the SADC Parliamentary forum into a regional Parliament
is an important step towards the rationalisation of regional institutions in
the continent.

According to the report of African experts on the issues confronting the AU,
there is a myriad of overlapping regional institutions that has contributed
greatly to the slow rationalisation of economic groupings. Africa has about
200 organisations dealing with cooperation and integration. In such a maze
of regional structures and dire lack of capacity it is incumbent to speed up
rationalisation.

The Cairo Agenda for Action endorsed by the 31st ordinary session of the
assembly of OAU recommended the speeding up of the rationalisation of the
institutional framework in order to achieve economic integration at regional
level.

Rationalised regional structures are major instruments to facilitate
co-operation and integration strategy of Africa and constitute building
blocks or cornerstones of the AU. Indeed one of the objectives of PAP
according to articles 3(4) 3 (9) is to facilitate co-operation of regional
economic communities and their parliamentary fora.

Article 11(7) states it as a function and powers of the PAP to promote the
co-ordination and harmonisation of policies programmes and activities of the
regional Economic Communities and their parliamentary fora in Africa.

The effects of a slow pace in the process of full regional integration in
Africa has caused an untold further suffering of the poor masses.

Intra-trade, but not structural transformation, of the REC in Africa has not
resulted in acceleration of trade unlike elsewhere in the world. African
states still marvel at having bilateral trade agreements with Western
countries thereby contributing to a further fragmentation of African trade
to the detriment of the collective vision.

To illustrate how far back Africa is to its vision of African Renaissance.
The FDI to Africa as a whole and exports have fallen to below 10% up to 2001
whilst imports to the continent from outside have increased astronomically
to about 95%.

The absence of accelerated regional integration has caused Africa to lack
bargaining power at multilateral institutions. Only a common holistic all
sector regional vision instead of a state based trade will help eradication
of poverty.


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