Charumbira elected VP of Pan African Parly Pledges to be a team player in formulating Bureau policies
CHIEFS’ council president, Fortune Charumbira, has been elected the vice president of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) representing the Southern Africa Caucus.
The elections were held on Wednesday during the First Ordinary Session of the 5th Pan African Parliament which is underway in Kigali, Rwanda.
The Pan African Parliament is an organ of the African Union whose objectives are to facilitate the effective implementation of the policies and objectives of the African Union, promote the principles of human rights and democracy and to promote peace, security and stability in Africa.
Chief Charumbira was elected as the fourth vice president of PAP with 114 votes out of 157 ballots cast, against Honourable Alice Ngoma of Malawi who withdrew her candidature at the last minute.
Chief Charumbira joins a top team made up of Hon Roger Nkodo Dang of Cameroon (Central Africa), Hon Stephen Julius Masele of Tanzania (East Africa), Hon Haïdara Aichata Cissé of Mali (West Africa) and Hon Bouras Djamal of Algeria (North Africa) who are first, second and third vice-presidents respectively.
The fourth vice-presidency spot had remained vacant since May 2018 after the Southern African Region failed to nominate a candidate to this position during the election of the 5th Bureau of the continental Parliament.
In line with rules of procedure, fresh elections were scheduled to be called in order to fill the vacancy.
In his acceptance speech, Chief Charumbira pledged to be a team player in his bid to help the Bureau to formulate policies that will advance the mandate of the PAP.
“My focus will be on working hand in hand with the other Bureau members to come up with ways to make a difference in the lives of our people as per the mission of this institution. I am grateful to the members of the PAP for the confidence shown in me through what has been a free, fair and transparent process. I hope to count on everyone as we aim to surmount the difficult task of making the PAP relevant to the people,” Chief Charumbira said.
“It is a fact that Africa has been lagging behind in some areas of human development, mostly looking at infrastructure and a lot of people are living in poverty. It is the duty of PAP to engage people on those issues so that governments can come up with the right policies in all sections so that we go back to the Africa that we knew with our forefathers who were vibrant and had a vision.”
He said he would ensure that Africa’s resources are distributed fairly, transparently and with accountability.
Africa’s resources should be exploited to the advantage of the people of Africa, said Chief Charumbira.
He said removal of all barriers and elimination of corruption and promotion of good governance and adherence to the rules of the Pan African Parliament and encouraging unity of the continent is important.
“We are all aware that a lot is taken out of Africa and that some people come and work with our politicians and enrich people outside our continent. This is poor governance and we should take it upon ourselves to eradicate such cancerous behaviour,” Chief Charumbira said.
He said the founding members of the African Union in 1963 had seen an Africa which thrived on good governance, high productivity and food sufficiency.
“We have lot of conflicts in Africa. Though they have reduced now, a lot of money is spent in trying to address issues of conflict and this is prohibiting development. I’m here to make sure we have a PAP that is united and focused on the challenges of the continent,” Chief Charumbira said.
He said he would also prioritise gender equality, highlighting that excluding women and youth in the continent’s development plans would be excluding about 80 percent of the African population.
The Zimbabwean delegation at the summit includes Chief Charumbira, Cdes; Pupurai Togarepi, Stars Mathe, Barbara Rwodzi and Tapiwa Mashakada. — @esinathy_essira TREASURY has proposed to drastically reduce the Budget deficit in 2019 through interventions such as limiting Government borrowing from the central bank, tightening of Treasury Bills issuances and cutting travel and wage bills.
Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, in a Pre-Budget Strategy Paper approved by Cabinet on Tuesday, said re-orientation of expenditures from consumptive spending to developmental priorities would be key in the 2019 Budget.
He said he will right-size public employment; rationalise posts in the Public Service, strengthen wage Bill Management, reduce travel expenditures and review expenditures on fuel benefit levels from January 2019.
Treasury will also curtail acquisition and provision of vehicles by the State, including replacement of condition of service vehicles, enforce measures on the use of Government Operational Vehicles by Public Officers, rationalise Foreign Service missions, review of Parliamentary sitting allowances and limit expenditures on by-elections.
“The 2019 Budget Strategy Paper proposes drastic reduction of the budget deficit to 5,2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019, and subsequently to 3,5 percent in 2020 and 3,1 percent of GDP by 2021, making us comply with the Sadc threshold of below 3 percent of GDP,” said Prof Ncube.
Turning to the debt to GDP ratio, Prof Ncube said urgency was needed to contain the fiscal deficit as international best practice and Sadc adopted thresholds for sustainable public indebtedness are pegged at 60 percent of the GDP.
The Public Debt Management Act requires that total outstanding Public and Publicly Guaranteed Debt as a ratio of GDP should not exceed 70 percent at the end of any fiscal year.
“By end of 2018, it is estimated that the Statutory limit of 70 percent is likely to be exceeded in view of the current borrowing trends from the domestic market. This underpins the urgency for containing the fiscal deficit.
Hence, it is prudent that this threshold be observed, a situation which will also contain our budget deficits,” Prof Ncube said.
The Minister said among the measures to contain the budget deficit was limiting Government borrowing from the Central Bank which surpassed 27 percent in 2017 against the stipulated 20 percent.
He said there would be a new Treasury Bill Issuance Framework in order to ensure that Treasury Bills are issued guided by adequate analysis and proper validation. Issuances will be governed by a framework that goes beyond generation of correspondence to the Reserve Bank.
“Issuances of Treasury Bills will, therefore, be strictly aligned to the Parliamentary approved borrowing requirements, and votes under an Appropriation Act. This will ensure that no expenditure of public monies is incurred on any service where provision has not been made by or in terms of the Public Finance Management Act or any other enactment,” said Prof Ncube.
He said the Reserve Bank, as a banker to Government, would only issue Treasury Bills via issuance of a Treasury Bill Issuance note by the Accountant General. — @ AuxiliaK