Legislators want Pan-African Parliament moved from South Africa after xenophobic attacks

Continental legislators have suggested moving the Pan-Africa Parliament away from South Africa and relocating it to another country in response to the recent wave of xenophobia that swept across the country.

Over the last month, South Africa has been plagued with horrific xenophobic attacks in which hundreds of African migrants have been murdered in cold blood by armed Zulu mobs. Violence erupted after Zulu monarch King Goodwill Zwelithini, said foreigners should leave South Africa and since then, Africans have been attacked, particularly in Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Although the violence has abated over the last week, local resentment still remains as Zulus still believe that it is other Africans taking their jobs, which is responsible for their poverty. South African police have since stepped up the arrest and prosecution of 198 illegal immigrants and local people are in support of widespread deportations.

In response, African parliamentarians have suggested moving the continent's lawmaking body to a more conducive environment. Hon Joseph Chelingi, the presiding officer, of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union (Ecosocc), said that the violence was in total contradiction of the values of the African Union (AU).

He added: "In our meeting today, some members of parliament were advocating that the Pan-Africa parliament relocate its headquarters from South Africa to any other country on the continent as a way of showing their displeasure. We are also saddened that our brothers and sisters that we lost lives for, our brothers and sisters that we sacrificed our resources for,  our brothers and sisters that we sacrificed our persons for, our brothers and sisters that we sacrificed our dignity and humanity for,  are now using the freedom that we helped them achieve to kill us and isolate us.

"We must all, as good thinking Africans, condemn in the strongest term the kind of impunity action that is taking place in South Africa where other Africans are being considered as foreigners therefore they are not supposed to live there. I come from Zambia and lost relatives in the struggle to liberate South Africa."

Dr Tunji Asaolu, the Ecosocc chairperson, said that Agenda 2063  launched by the commission was an approach on how the continent should effectively learn from the lessons of the past. He added that it was to show how to build on the progress and strategically exploit all opportunities available for the immediate and medium term, in order to ensure positive social-economic transformation over the next 50 years.

According to Dr Asaolu, Agenda 2063 would be a new road map that emphasises the importance of rekindling the passion for pan-Africanism, with a sense of unity, self reliance, integration and solidarity. Established in March 2004, the Pan-African Parliament was one of the nine organs provided for in the treaty establishing the African Economic Community signed in Abuja, Nigeria, in 1991.