PRETORIA, Nov 9 (AFP) - African parliamentarians are Friday to adopt a
draft treaty to establish a Pan African Parliament (PAP) and the body could
sit as soon as next March, the speaker of South Africa's national assembly
said Thursday.
   Frene Ginwala said some 200 delegates meeting here were late Thursday
putting the finishing touching to the document that seeks to create a
53-country parliament.
   "The discussions have been very substantial. We have agreed on the
composition, the election of parliamentarians and their powers," Ginwala
told AFP.
   "We have never had to vote and have found a surprising level of broad
agreement. We have moved quite fast."
   The parliamentarians agreed the PAP will initially be an advisory and
consultative forum but will ultimately move to be a law-making body,"
Ginwala said.
   "It will not be law-making immediately as there is no agreement on areas
of sovereignty to be ceded."
   The PAP is to be an organ of the Union of African states, proposed by the
OAU in July as a watered-down version of a grandiose plan by Libyan leader
Moamer Kadhafi for a "United States of Africa".
   Some 31 of the Organisation of African Unity's 53 states have signed a
treaty to establish the union.
   The treaty will also set up an executive commission, an African court of
justice and revive plans for an African economic community.
   So far, however, only four countries -- Mali, Libya, Senegal and Togo --
have ratified the treaty, which needs ratification by two-thirds of OAU
members.
   South Africa expects to ratify the treaty by the end of February 2001,
Ginwala said.
   Delegates have conceded the parliament will be expensive to run, although
parliamentarians -- five from each country including at least one woman --
will not be paid salaries.
   At present the OAU, which will be replaced by the African Union, has a
deficit of about 40 million dollars because many of its members states have
not paid their fees.
   Ginwala said the African parliamentarians had to play a role in
persuading their governments to pay their debts.
   The African Union has received a lukewarm response from some politicians.
Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi said recently that the continent was not
ready for such a step with wars raging across it.
   But Ginwala was optimistic about the contribution a continental
parliament could make to peace and stability in Africa.
   "It will have a very profound effect because we are going to build
understanding and there is not enough understanding at an official level,"
she said.
   OAU Secretary General Salim Ahmed Salim has said he believes the PAP
would involve ordinary Africans in the affairs of their continent.
   South Africa proposed an automatic review procedure, in the form of a
conference in five years time, to see if the PAP "was being effective and to
ensure the objectives of the protocol were being realised". This was
accepted by delegates.
   bur-ck/ef/kc

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