The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) was at a near standstill after legislators demanded that the Speaker puts on hold the day’s debate until their security concerns are addressed.

The MPs were agitated after an armed attack on March 5 left one person in their delegation injured in South Africa.

Thugs are said to have trailed a group of legislators from Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique after they landed at the OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg to Mercure Hotel where they robbed them of their money, passports and bags at gunpoint.

An interpreter for the Kenyan representatives was serious injured when the robbers hit her on the forehead with a pistol butt.

Several attacks

A series of attacks on members of the African Union parliament, while in South Africa, has seen them demand for protection including police escort.

“We had assurances from police and the Government of South Africa that such incidences would not happen again,” PAP president Roger Nkodo said, adding that the issues of security were the responsibility of the host country and not the Speaker.

In August last year, four Ugandan lawmakers were ambushed by armed men as they entered the KariBou-Inn Guest House located in a Johannesburg suburb. They lost their passports and personal items. The Ugandan team were to visit the Amandla fertiliser plant in Durban, about 630 kilometres away, for a benchmarking exercise.

READ: Ugandan MPs robbed at gunpoint in South Africa

Just a month earlier, PAP member Aissatou Sow Diawara from Senegal was shot and critically injured while leaving the airport in Johannesburg. Her three colleagues from Namibia were robbed of their belongings.

Several other attacks on PAP legislators were reported in March and July last year and in August and October in 2015.

The lawmakers who have often complained of frequent attacks in the country and accuse the host government of inaction demanded to know what interim measures would be taken by the continental legislature.

“We are the most important VVIPs from our governments. We are not tourists. What is the way forward in the interim?” a visibly angry legislator asked.

Jacquiline Amongin of Uganda reiterated the members’ concerns adding that the MPs should be provided with police escorts to and from the airport with guards manning the hotels they occupy.

Following some persuasion from the Speaker, the members begrudgingly allowed the House business to proceed and thereafter debate on a common position over the security matter which would be presented to the South African government and African Union heads of state.

The PAP 4th Plenary Session is taking place in Midrand, South Africa from March 3 – 11.

South Africa has high crime and robbery rates.