MILES SAMPA TO CHALLENGE CHARUMBIRA FOR PAN-AFRICAN PARLIAMENT PRESIDENT
By Special Correspondent
Zambia’s contraversial lawmaker, Miles Sampa, is gunning for the big one.
The contraversial member of parliament from Zambia says he is best suited to take over from his former friend and now nemesis, Senator Chief Fortune Zephania Charumbira from Zimbabwe.
Following a protracted but succesful battle on rotation of the Presidency from Southern Africa Caucus, which demanded that the region was to float a candidate that was previously dominated by candidates from West Africa, Charumbira was elected in June 2022.
However, because of an old and unexplained rule, Charumbira lost the presidency.
The past rule states that when MPs go back for re-election in their home country, they lose the position.
However, the African Union Heads of State Summit held in Lusaka in 2022 changed the rule. The new rule stated that a PAP MP may lose the position held, if he is not re-elected in his own home country, or his membership assignment is withdrawn.
To this effect, the First Vice President of PAP representing the Northern Region, Hon. Professor Massouda Mohamed Laghdaf (Mrs.), who was successfully re-elected in her home country of Mauritania in May 2023 and re-designated to the Pan-African Parliament by the Mauritanian Parliament, benefitted from tbis new rule of procedure and she successfully resumed her office as the First Vice President during the Second Ordinary Session of the Sixth Parliament in line with the new provision.
However despite Charumbira emerging unopposed as the Deputy President of the Zimbabwe National Council of Chiefs in an election conducted by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission in Harare, he was made to lose his seat as Pan African Parliament President by forces allegedly led by the European Union and by one of the Vice President, Hon. Dr. Ashebir Woldegiorgis Gayo.
Gayo from Ethiopia rose through the ranks to become Vice President of the East African Caucus in 2022.
In August 2023, he became Acting President of PAP after the ouster of Charumbira.
Gayo and Sampa, who is Chairperson of the powerful Audit and Public Accounts (PACA), hastily launched an audit to implicate, embarrass amd destroy Charumbira.
The Audit findings claimed among other things, that Charumbira had employed 300 Zimbabweans at the Pan African Parliament Secretariat to the exclusion of other countries.
This riled many members of PAP.
Gayo and Sampa also ochestrated the suspension pending dismissal fired a very experienced and professional Clerk of the Parliament, Mrs. Lindiwe Khumalo.
The PAP , based in Midrand, South Africa, plays a vital role in promoting good governance, democracy, and human rights in Africa.
The PAP Clerk, who provides leadership in the management of PAP’s day-to- day operations, is proposed by the PAP Bureau and approved the Members of the PAP (MPAPs).
Lindiwe’s previous experience as the Acting Executive Secretary to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) was recruited in 2023 after a competitive process.
GAYO, SAMPA SUFFER SETBACK
Some Members of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) called for the immediate removal of its discredited chairperson for the Committee on Audits and Public Accounts Miles Sampa its acting president, Ashebir Gayo for allegedly engaging in mass embezzlement of public funds.
GAYO REMOVED AS PAP ACTING PRESIDENT
The EXECUTIVE COUNCIL of the Forty Fourth Ordinary Session sitting on 14-15 February 2024 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia made decisions and resolutions that has changed the dynamics and restored power and authority to the Clerk.
1. The 3rd Vice President of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), Hon. Lucia Dos Passos is to take over as the Acting President of the PAP in line with the provisions of Article 12(7) of the Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community relating to the Pan-African Parliament (PAP Protocol).
2. Hon. Passos representing the West Africa Region will remain the Acting President until Bureau elections are held.
These were part of the decisions taken during the 44th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union (AU) which ended on February 15, 2024 following the consideration of the draft decisions submitted by the Permanent Representative Committee (PRC) which had considered the Report of the Task Force set up by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission on the crisis at PAP resulting from the suspension of the Rules of Procedure adopted on 04 November 2023.
3. The PAP Plenary session should be convened at PAP headquarters before the
end of April 2024 to fill the vacancies in the PAP Bureau. The Commission
should oversee the election process of Bureau members to ensure transparency
4. The Clerk of the Secretariat of the Pan-African Parliament should be immediately
reinstated.
5. Administrative decisions made by the former and current leadership of PAP without following established rules and due process, including recruitment,
promotions, and suspensions, should be reviewed and nullified.
6. Sampa’s Audit was disregarded. The Commission was directed to conduct an independent and comprehensive
forensic audit of the PAP’s overall administration, finances, and operations through the Board of External Auditors, and submit an audit report to the 46th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council in July 2024.
7. The Commission should oversee the election process of Bureau members to ensure transparency and independence, following the guidelines developed by the Office of the Legal Counsel.
8. The suspended Rules of Procedure of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) should be reconsidered by the PAP Plenary, taking into consideration the inconsistencies outlined in the Legal Opinion issued by the Office of the Legal Counsel.
9. All administrative decisions made by the Second Vice President, Hon. Dr. Ashebir W. Gayo without following established rules and due process, including recruitment, promotions, and suspensions, should be reviewed and nullified.
10. The AU expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of accountability in the PAP and urged PAP to ensure that its members are held accountable for any legal, financial, or reputational damage caused or that will be caused to the Union. This includes holding accountable members of the current and former PAP leadership who have been or will be found responsible for posing legal, financial, or reputational risks to the Union.
11. An independent and comprehensive forensic audit of the PAP’s overall administration, finances, and operations is to be conducted through the Board of External Auditors and an audit report submitted to the 45th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council in July 2024.
Sampa, who us being financed by Gayo, wants to launch his campaign and visit suv-regions to drum up support for himself.