Mozambique: Esperança Bias presides over SADC Plenary Assembly – Watch

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Esperança Bias presides over SADC Plenary Assembly – Watch

4:13 CAT | 09 Oct 2020

Screen grab: SADC Parliament / Youtube

President of the Parliamentary Forum of the Southern African Development Community (SADCPF), Esperança Bias, is presiding over the 47th Plenary Assembly of this body, being held from 9 to 11 October under the motto, “The Role of Parliaments in Strengthening Accountability during a pandemic: The Case of Covid-19”.

This is the first time that an SADC PF plenary takes place virtually.

Over three days, the 47th of the SADC PF Plenary Assembly will analyse the Executive Commission’s reports on administrative issues and the state of play on the Forum’s transformation agenda into a Regional Parliament.

The Executive Secretary of SADC, Stergomena Lawrence Tax, is scheduled to present a statement on matters of regional interest.

In line with established practice, representatives of continental and regional parliaments are expected to deliver statements of solidarity with the SADC PF during the plenary. They include the Pan African Parliament (PAP), the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament.

For the first time ever, proceedings during the plenary will be live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube, thus enabling citizens to follow on social media.

SADC PF Secretary General Boemo Sekgoma said this week that the theme of the plenary is based on the role of parliaments and accountability during pandemics such as Covid-19.

“The theme recognises that there has been a change in the global, regional and national situations and there are new challenges. Therefore, national parliaments are on uncharted waters. This plenary will enable sharing of new experiences within the region based on inter-parliamentary cooperation as we move to strengthen parliamentary democracy in the SADC region,” Sekgoma said.

Vice President Nangolo Mbumba will officially open the plenary.

Among the highlights will be a statement by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the first African to be appointed director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Sekgoma said parliaments are critical in providing political leadership and commitment towards a coordinated response to the Covid-19 pandemic and other health priorities, and as such the address by the WHO boss would ensure that the region’s lawmakers are briefed and updated on the state of affairs regarding global efforts in responding to the pandemic.

“Delegates will thus get to appreciate how other countries are responding to the Covid-19 pandemic and, more importantly, what progress is being made around the search for a vaccine.”

This will be the first time that a WHO secretary general addresses the Plenary Assembly Session of SADC PF.

Also during the plenary, SADC PF will incorporate special rules for operating under extraordinary circumstances.

“This is an opportunity for parliaments to share experiences at regional level on how they should respond to Covid-19 and ensure accountability by the executive in line with their mandate,” the SG said.

Expectations are that the plenary will also be updated on the progress made towards transforming the SADC PF into a SADC regional parliament.

The last SADC Summit for Heads of State and Government which met in Tanzania resolved on the transformation of SADC PF and assigned the secretariats of SADC and SADC PF to jointly work on modalities related to certain matters including the model of the envisaged regional parliament.

The president of the SADC PF, Esperança Laurinda Francisco Nhiuane Bias, speaker of the Assembly of the Republic of Mozambique, is presiding for the first time after taking over from her compatriot Verónica Macamo Dhlovo, who left the forum to take up a cabinet position as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation following the 2019 general elections in Mozambique.

Source: Rádio Moçambique / New Era