Much as one may try, it’s not always possible to be charitable towards some of Africa’s institutions. The very unexceptional and scandal-prone Pan African Parliament (PAP), which has been hosted by South Africa since its inception in 2004, is one such body.

The continental legislature’s president from 2015 to 2021, Cameroonian Roger Dang, was a frequent subject of media coverage during the latter part of his tenure, but this was mostly for the wrong reasons. He had his first brush with scandal in 2018, when it emerged that he was refusing to release a report on the PAP’s finances. At about the same time, South African media reported that he had refused a Ministerial-level residence offered to him by the South African government, preferring to book himself into the much costlier Michelangelo Hotel, in Sandton.

Dang also endured a gauntlet of protests by staff who were gatvol with his alleged bulling, favouritism, disregarding of African Union (AU) rules and regulations, and illegally swearing in Parliamentarians from Côte d’Ivoire.

In June 2021, during elections for Dang’s successor and other senior officials, the PAP chamber at Gallagher Estate, in Midrand, became an embarrassing spectacle as disagreement over who to elect degenerated into scuffles and bitter verbal exchanges. This prompted the bosses at the AU headquarters in Addis Abba, Ethiopia, to order an indefinite halt to the proceedings. When voting was eventually allowed to take place after about a year, Zimbabwean Parliamentarian Fortune Charumbira emerged as the new president.

Charumbira has proved to be not any better than his predecessor. In May this year, he was charged with sexually assaulting his niece. But he continues in his position as if nothing has happened. The 250 members of the PAP are obviously oblivious to reputation management 101, which holds that a positive assessment of an organisation’s leadership is key to the overall reputation of the organisation itself. Besides, gender-based violence is a big issue in many African countries, which makes the PAP members’ reticence quite disturbing. The fellow should have been suspended immediately.

In the latest scandal, the PAP has appointed one Eubert Angel, a minister of religion who is Charumbira’s compatriot, as its ambassador for interfaith dialogue and humanitarian affairs. The appointment was first revealed by an independent Zimbabwean media house and subsequently confirmed by Charumbira himself on July 19.

For the uninitiated, Angel was exposed by Qatari television channel Al Jazeera as a key figure in the Gold Mafia racket, whereby money launderers and gold smugglers in Zimbabwe secretly sent abroad illegally obtained money, sometimes with the assistance of corrupt employees of South African banks. In Al Jazeera’s clandestinely obtained footage, Angel is seen agreeing to smuggle $1.2-billion in dirty cash into Zimbabwe using his diplomatic status. He is Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ambassador-at-large for Europe and the Americas.

But why, as Africans, do we continue to be embarrassed by this absolutely useless institution? After all, it is a toothless bulldog without any powers, unlike the European Parliament, for example. This unpalatable state of affairs was to be remedied by the Malabo Protocol, which was adopted by the AU Assembly in 2014 and was intended to give the PAP some legislative powers. But only 12 of a minimum of 28 States have ratified this protocol, preventing it from taking effect. Even then, the AU Assembly would have the power to determine the areas over which the PAP would have jurisdiction.

It’s imperative that we have a European Parliament-style PAP with men and women who are prepared to call out the excesses of fellows like Dang and Charumbira and their ilk and can truly provide oversight of the AU’s activities and ensure the implementation of its decisions.