Regional parliament needed to give SADC bargaining power

A REGIONAL parliament is needed if SADC is to bargain from a position of strength with the international community, said DTA Chairperson Johan de Waal at a SADC Parliamentary Forum meeting at the coast over the weekend.

‘The SADC Parliamentary Forum must urgently become a proper SADC Parliament,’ said De Waal. ‘A Parliament that can negotiate from a position of some strength, and that can make a lot of noise in the interest of the people we represent.’De Waal was addressing regional parliamentarians at the 25th Parliamentary Forum Plenary Assembly at Swakopmund, attended by MPs from 12 SADC nations. ‘There is a saying that the lamb that makes the most noise gets the most milk. The question is, how much noise can individual states make compared to the hell of a noise we can make if we all shouted together,’ he said, He said the short term goals of a regional parliament would be to strengthen the integrity of financial systems and fight corruption, ‘as every dollar counts’, stimulate the regional economy with sustainable job creation projects, and capitalise on sustainable energy, while also encouraging public investment programmes.De Waal described the region as ‘midstream’ in the global economic crisis and that daily the crisis was negatively unfolding across southern Africa. He also pointed to SACU being ‘under severe pressure’, especially Namibia, Swaziland, Botswana and Lesotho. Chairperson of the SADC Parliamentary Forum, Prince Guduza Dlamani of Swaziland, said SADC leaders should not remain silent when a major crisis, like the global economic crisis, engulfs the region and negatively impacts its people.’Parliaments must always position themselves to take proactive measures to contain and address crisis issues such as this one, if we are to remain relevant to the expectations and needs of our people,’ Guduza said.