WINDHOEK: Namibia has taken the lead in advocating for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) to be transformed from a charitable organisation into an international inter-parliamentary organisation.

The Namibian parliament this week hosted a meeting of the budget committee of the CPA Africa region to, among others, discuss the resolution to convert the parliamentary association into an international body.

While officiating the budget committee meeting in Windhoek on Thursday, chairperson of the National Council, Lukas Sinimbo Muha, said the call by CPA Africa is in line with the association’s strategic plan.

He said the CPA Strategic Plan of 2022-2025 has the objective of persuading the UK government to implement legislation that would recognise the CPA as an international inter-parliamentary organisation.

‘The objective further seeks to persuade the UK government to enact legislation that would change the CPA legal status from a UK charity organisation governed by British charity laws to an Int
ernational Parliamentary Organisation. However, this strategic plan is about to end within a year or so, but little is being done from the side of the UK government,’ said Muha, who is also the CPA Africa executive committee vice chairperson.

CPA is an organisation of parliaments and legislatures of countries that were once colonised by Britain. It consists of 52 member states and is divided into nine regions, of which CPA Africa is the biggest.

CPA Africa treasurer and chairperson of the budget committee, Lentheng Ntombi Mekgwe, said the committee is also directly linked to activities related to changing the CPA status into an international parliamentary body.

Mekgwee, who is the speaker of South Africa’s Gauteng Provincial Legislature, said the transformation of the CPA was the main agenda of the Thursday meeting.

She told Nampa on the margins of the meeting that currently the CPA is registered as a charity organisation in terms of the Charity Act of the United Kingdom.

‘So as African branches, we cann
ot always put money in a charity organisation because when it is dissolved, the money will be used in charity organisations in the United Kingdom. Whereas we have our own people on the African continent who are poor and need to change their own status, so we want to change this status. And I am proud because, as a Gauteng province, we champion that rule to be changed,’ she said.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency