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George Maponga in Midrand, South Africa
Illegal and unilateral sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West continued to hang over the First Ordinary Session of the 6th parliament of the Pan African Parliament(PAP) here in Midrand after the continental legislative body today, resolved to constitute teams to engage the European Union and US over the heinous economic blockade on Harare that is now having a contagion effect across the Sadc region.
The development comes as PAP mid-this week adopted a motion calling for the unconditional lifting of sanctions against Zimbabwe in the wake of a unanimous decision by parliamentarians for them to be scrapped.
In a week of boisterous debate in the closing week of PAP’s First Ordinary Session of the 6th parliament, legislators were unequivocal in their call for the West to lift the economic blockade which they said was unjustified and also an affront to human rights.
South African legislator Dr Mathole Motshekga stopped short of calling for open nationalisation of Western businesses and properties across Africa because of the illegal embargo equating them to a new form of colonialism while railing against the continued playing second fiddle to powerful nations by Africa.
Speaking in a media briefing marking the end of the First Ordinary Session of the 6th parliament today, PAP president Chief Fortune Charumbira revealed plans to constitute teams to engage protagonists in various hotspots across Africa.
Chief Charumbira said the new revived, renewed and repositioned PAP wanted results to African problems and zeroed in on the illegal blockade against Harare by the West.
”We are going to constitute a team or teams to engage the EU and the US over illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe after the country embarked on the land reform programme to address racially skewed land ownership imbalances. There was a unanimous decision by PAP MPs that sanctions should immediately be lifted because they are unjustified. Our teams will soon engage the West over that, among other issues,” said Chief Charumbira.
The PAP president said the issue of Zimbabwe sanctions will be among topics that will loom large at the forthcoming meeting between PAP and the EU parliament in the Belgian capital of Brussels which is also the seat of the European legislature.
”The issue of Zimbabwe sanctions will be one of the items up for discussion when a PAP delegation meets the EU parliament on the 7-9 December.”
Chief Charumbira said besides the issue of unjustified Zimbabwe sanctions, PAP also wanted to form teams and missions that will be deployed to hotspots across Africa to solve problems there.
Among the hotspots is the DRC where rebels in the east are fighting the government in Kinshasa with ostensible backing from Rwanda. Several West African countries have also been riven by coups, making that part of Africa the ”sick region” of the continent.
Chief Charumbira said his organisation would also vigorously accentuate calls for the continent to shift from rain-fed agriculture to irrigation to exorcise the ghost of hunger that is taking its toll across Africa despite the continent having abundant water bodies.
Online Reporter