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09/16/2004:

"Mbeki: 'Africa's time has come!'"

Africans look to the Pan African Parliament (PAP) to help them escape from poverty and underdevelopment, South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday.

"The masses do not need anybody to inform them about their conditions and the history they have had to endure," he told the opening of the PAP's second sitting at Gallagher Estate in Midrand.

"They want you, their elected representatives, to give them the possibility to control their institutions. They want you ... to help them to change their material conditions so that they escape from the jaws of poverty and their countries and continent from the clutches of underdevelopment."

The eyes of Africa will be focused on the PAP as it carries out its work during this second sitting -- from Friday to October 7, Mbeki said.

Full Article : mg.co.za