On Friday, the CEO of the AU governance watchdog, Eddie Maloka, hosted a welcome dinner in Pretoria to honor the newly appointed AU officials, Senator Chief Fortune Charumbira and Ms. Nardos Bekele Thomas. The two seasoned officials recently took the reigns of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) and AU Development Agency (AUDA) respectively.
The high-level dinner was officially hosted by the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) led by the University of Witwatersrand’s visiting Professor Eddy Maloka in partnership with the University of Pretoria and the Center for Human Rights supported by South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation
The appointment of Senator Chief Charumbira and Ms. Bekele-Thomas comes at an opportune time when the African Union is carrying out sweeping reforms in all its organs. The African Parliament elected Chief Charumbira to be the first president of the Pan-African Parliament from the Southern Region using the previously contested rotation principle.
The AU development agency is boasting of its first female CEO, Ms. Nardos Bekele-Thomas who takes over the baton from Ibrahim Mayaki.
The appointment of the new AU bosses was underpinned by the fundamental need for good governance structures to enable continental integration, as well as, a need for a progressive new direction for the AU organs.
