The Speaker of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, Honourable Ntombi Mekgwe has been elected as the Treasurer-General for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) – Africa Region during the Annual General Meeting held last week in Abuja Nigeria.
Hon. Mekgwe takes over the reign of Treasurer-General from the West Africa and will serve her three-year term up to the year 2024. Her election to the continental executive of CPA was hailed as a great success by the leader of the South African delegation and Deputy Speaker of the Republic of South Africa’s National Assembly, Hon Lechesa Tsenoli.
Reflecting on her election as the Treasurer of the CPA-Africa Region at its 51st conference, Hon. Mekgwe expressed her gratitude for the confidence and trust placed on her by the continental body of Parliamentarians. She expressed hope that the resolutions adopted at this 51st Conference of the CPA-Africa Region will be successfully implemented by all national and sub-national legislatures. She said her focus will be on the fight against Covid-19 and its impact on women, as well the development of vulnerable groups like children, senior citizens and poor communities.
The five-day 51st CPA-Africa Region Conference, held under the theme: “African Parliaments and the challenges of Covid-19 pandemic”, adopted a number of resolutions on what continental Parliamentarians must do to fight the pandemic, build continental resilience and readiness to fight the pandemic and strengthen research and development to reduce the continent’s dependence on advanced countries of the world for life-saving medicines. The Parliamentarians condemned the non-equitable share of the world’s capacity to fight the global pandemic through inter alia, vaccines, most of which are patented and therefore inaccessible to many under-developed nations especially in the African continent.
