Mozambique elected new chair of the OACPS Parliamentary Assembly

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Mozambique elected new chair of the OACPS Parliamentary Assembly

5:12 CAT | 28 Oct 2022

Photo: OACPS Secretariat on Twitter

The Community of Southern African Countries (SADC) on Thursday elected Mozambique to Chair the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) and Co-Chair the African, Caribbean, Pacific and European Union (ACP-EU) Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA), for a two-year term starting in January 2023.

“It means a lot of determination from our part because we are in the process of signing the new Cotonou Agreement, which links the ACP states and the EU”, said Ana Rita Sithole, deputy of the Assembly of the Republic , the Mozambican parliament, and member of the Standing Committee, on the sidelines of the 61st Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) and the 42nd Session of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly Africa, Caribbean and Pacific – European Union (ACP-EU).

At this stage, according to Sithole, it is Mozambique’s responsibility to mobilize diplomatic and parliamentary mechanisms for the ratification of the agreement.

“Our mission is to do a lot of parliamentary diplomacy for this agreement to be ratified as soon as possible and come into force”.

“We assume that there are many issues to be discussed with our EU partners”, she stressed.

Sithole also revealed that South Africa has expressed its desire to withdraw from the ACP Assembly, because it prefers to negotiate with the EU on a bilateral basis.

“We have information that this country has expressed its desire to withdraw from this organization. South Africa is withdrawing because of various reasons, it prefers to negotiate development issues directly with the European Union, separately from other African countries”, she said.

Questioned about the impact of South Africa’s withdrawal Sithole said “I believe that at the level of Heads of State, these aspects are being discussed but as an organization we were surprised by its absence at this meeting. There are many problems, heterogeneous issues that they should be addressed together”.

Also at today’s meeting, different members of the ACP Assembly, from Social Affairs and Environmental Committees, addressed the need to create robust legislation to bring down the increasing number of road accidents.

“We have to adopt a more efficient legislation to reduce accidents on the roads. This is a public health issue and one of the priorities of the World Health Organization”, said Unity Dowe, Botswana deputy and former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

According to Mathew Nyuma, deputy from the Sierra Leone parliament there is a need to produce tangible proposals to present to European partners, “to ban imports of second-hand cars, which contribute to road accidents due to their mechanic degradation making them not road worthy”

Vanuatu Minister of Agriculture, Hon Bakoa Kaltongga seeking OACPS support to bring climate change and human rights to the International Court of Justice. He is in Maputo, Mozambique, at the OACPS joint parliamentary Assembly. pic.twitter.com/je61PjMKrK

— OACPS Secretariat (@PressACP) October 28, 2022