Speaker of the National Assembly of Zambia, Rt. Hon. Nelly B K Mutti, SC, MP, FAPRA, led a delegation of parliamentarians to the 57th SADC Parliamentary Forum Plenary Assembly Session held from 31st May to 7th June, 2025 in Victoria Falls City, Zimbabwe. The Plenary Assembly Session attracted about 200 delegates from the SADC Member States and was held under the theme: “Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Effective and Efficient Parliamentary Processes in the SADC Region: Experiences, Challenges and Opportunities”.
The SADC Chairperson and President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, His Excellency Dr Emmerson D Mnangagwa officially opened the Plenary Assembly Session on Monday, 2nd June, 2025. In his address to the delegates, President Mnangagwa stated that, for SADC Parliaments, the potential benefits of Artificial Intelligence and innovative technologies were multi-pronged, offering solutions for resource optimization, which in turn enable Parliaments to achieve greater results. He added thattechnology can enhance connections between parliamentarians and citizens in their geographically dispersed constituencies.
President Mnangagwa called for cross-border technology sharing and investment towards the strengthening of inter-connectivity and the lowering of tariffs for the benefit of the people across the SADC Region.
In the Plenary Assembly, Rt. Hon. Nelly B. K. Mutti, SC, MP, FAPRA, Speaker of the National Assembly of Zambia, delivered a statement on Zambia’s Constitutional Reforms in support of the SADC 50% women representation target. She stated that Zambia was taking decisive steps to achieve the SADC threshold through the Constitutional Reforms aimed at, among other things, increasing the number of women, youths and persons with disabilities in Parliament using the Mixed-Member Proportional Representation electoral system.
She added that in order to meet the practical challenges that impede women’s full participation in politics, and considering that the number of youthful Members of Parliament will increase after Constitutional Reforms, she had spearheaded the construction of a Crèche within the precincts of the National Assembly, which will offer several benefits such as providing day-care services for young children of Members of Parliament and staff.
The Plenary Assembly Session also considered the statement on the 150th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly and other Related Meetings held from 5th to 9th April 2025 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan,which was presented by Rt. Hon. Nelly B. K. Mutti, SC, MP, FAPRA, Speaker of the National Assembly of Zambia, in her capacity as SADC Group Representative to the IPU Executive Committee.
Meanwhile, the Zambian delegation reported to the Plenary Assembly that the National Assembly of Zambia had taken significant steps to integrate Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies into its operations, in order to improve transparency, accountability, and efficiency. Delivering the statement to the Symposium, on behalf of the delegation, Mr Kalalwe Mukosa, MP, stated that one of the technological tools being used by the National Assembly of Zambia is My e-Parliament mobile application. He stated that this tool had promoted real-time interaction between citizens and Members of Parliament. He added that the application allowed public participation in parliamentary proceedings, including making submissions to committees.
Mr Mukosa indicated that the National Assembly of Zambia was working on automating the Legislative Information Management Systems using AI in order to avoid the repetition of questions in the House, and enhancement of the preparation of the Order Paper using AI-powered sentiment analysis. He explained that the National Assembly of Zambia intended to use AI tools like Natural Language Processing to support real-time search for parliamentary rules and automatically detect unparliamentary language during debates.
And Mr Victor Lumayi, MP, who presented Zambia’s Country Report on the progress on the implementation of the resolutions of the 56th Plenary Assembly Session held in Zambia in December, 2024, reported that significant strides had been made towards advancing the transformation of the SADC Parliamentary Forum into a Regional Parliament. He highlighted that Zambia became theeleventh SADC Member State to sign the Agreement amending the SADC Treaty to Establish the SADC Parliament on 2nd July, 2024.
Mr Lumayi stated that during the Official Opening of 56th SADC PF Plenary Assembly Session in Zambia, Her Honour the Vice President, Mrs W K Mutale Nalumango, MP, reaffirmed Zambia’scommitment to the establishment of the SADC Parliament and pledged support for all processes leading to its successful completion. He added that Zambia had also submitted her comments on the draft protocol to the SADC Secretariat, pursuant to the decision of the 44th SADC Summit.
During the Plenary Assembly, Ms Chushi Kasanda, MP took oath as a new Member of the SADC Parliamentary Forum. Ms Kasanda takes over from Hon Princess Kasune, MP who was a Member prior to being appointed Minister of Justice.
The Plenary Assembly Session also considered Standing Committees’ reports and the Executive Committee Report on the General SADC PF Policy and Administrative Matters.
The Zambian delegation to the 57th SADC Parliamentary Forum Plenary Assembly Session included: Mr Victor Lumayi, MP, Ms Julien Nyemba, MP, Mrs Mutinta Mazoka, MP, Mr Kalalwe Mukosa, MP and Ms Chushi Kasanda, MP.
