George Sanzila

Namibian parliamentarians are part of new members who took an oath at the three-day 49th SADC-PF virtual Plenary Assembly that ended on Sunday. They are Vipuakuje Muharukua, Utaara Mootu, Phillipus Katamelo and Paula Kooper. 

Some of the matters discussed emanated from the theme of the gathering, ‘Leveraging the AfCFTA for post-Covid economic recovery in Southern Africa: The role of SADC Parliamentary Forum and National Parliaments’, with presentations by African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) secretary general Wamkele Mene and Southern African Customs Union (SACU) executive secretary Paulina Elago, who both reiterated the significance of AfCFTA in boosting and resuscitating African economies.

The assembly concluded with the adoption of various reports, including a report of the Standing Committee on food, agriculture and natural resources and a report on gender equality, women advancement and youth development.

The plenary assembly advises the SADC summit on matters of regional policy issues and promotes the objectives and programmes of SADC. SADC-PF was established in 1997 in accordance with Article 9 (2) of the SADC treaty as an autonomous institution of SADC. 

It is a regional inter-parliamentary body, composed of 15 parliaments, representing over 3500 parliamentarians in the SADC region. 

These member parliaments are Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.