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MIDRAND, SOUTH AFRICA – The Pan African Parliament (PAP) will be pursuing the African Union (AU) theme of the Year 2025: “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations”, Chief Fortune Zephaniah Charumbira, the President of the continental legislative body has said.
Addressing a Meeting of the African Ambassadors with the Bureau of the Pan-African Parliament at the PAP precinct in Midrand, South Africa during the Sitting of Permanent Committees and related meetings of the 6th Parliament of the Pan-African Parliament today, Chief Charumbira said the continental legislative body would focus on the issue of the reparations for Africans and people of African descent.
“The issue of reparations is important because Africans suffered a lot even before colonialism, during slavery. They lost their wealth to the Western world and suffered a lot of injustice and human rights abuses. The African Union, as you are aware, has said this year, 2025, we need to pursue these issues. Those who lost wealth, or in other words, in some form, need to be compensated. And those that suffered in other forms that can be addressed or redressed, that need to be done.
“So the whole of Africa, including the people in the diaspora, and by diaspora, we mean people outside the continent, who still are people from Africa. They are outside for various reasons, mainly through slavery. Do you know what happened during slavery? People were forcibly moved. And during the transportation, they suffered a lot of harm and pain. And those people need to be compensated. And we, as Africa, need to recognize them as part of our continent,” Chief Charumbira said.
The PAP President revealed that the continental legislative body has set aside Monday 24 February 2025 to meet people from all over the world,
who are experts on the issues of reparations and injustice.
He highlighted that topical on the agenda during committee meetings will be problems of conflicts on the continent.
“As you are aware, we have our mantra, which is silencing the guns by 2030. But it appears we are not winning because whereas we thought guns were being silenced, we have some of the worst conflicts. Now in DRC, as we speak, you are all aware of what is happening in DRC. Millions of people are being displaced. Guns are being fired. There is a lot of fighting in Goma, mainly. And we understand they are moving to Kinshasa. We have Sudan. We have more than 15,000 people who have been killed. And they are always raging as we speak.
“We will also be speaking to these issues. We will also be speaking about issues of the effects of some of the policies that the new administration under President Trump, new policies that, for example, the role of assistance to the health sector, which I think will suffer the most. You know, because the continent has been getting free antiretrovirals. It’s sad because the USAID is being terminated. But as we cry, we should also say,
I think this is a lesson for Africa, that this dependence on those people will not help us.
“We as Africa have to make sure that we use our own resources efficiently and effectively. We have the capacity on this continent to be able to get the money, to get the money to buy these things. But it is a question of reorganizing our bodies and ensuring that our resources from the continent
are not exploited again outside. We boast of natural resources but we are aware that the companies that are exploiting, manufacturing, and value-adding the resources are not our companies. The profits are emitted outside. So we should be engaged seriously,” Chief Charumbira said.
Many other topics are coming. The education topic was not ended. The meeting with the ambassadors also talked about inter-African trade where participants encouraged Africa to be producing more and trade among itself.
