MPs in South Africa to study governance issues

Thirteen members of the Somali Transitional National Assembly (TNA) arrived in South Africa on 2 November at the start of a three-week study tour focusing on reconciliation issues. The three-week tour, organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Somalia office, will take the MPs to Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town, where they will meet groups representing civil society, local authorities and members of the South African parliament and judiciary, UNDP said in a statement on 2 November. Urban Sjostrom, the coordinator of the study tour, said the idea of the tour had been to "provide a chance for Somalis to learn from South Africa's unique experience. South Africa moved from a state of conflict under apartheid to a democracy without falling into civil war." Sjostrom said South Africa had achieved this by focusing on reconciliation, forgiveness and healing. UNDP said one of the most important elements of the tour would be a three-day workshop on the healing of memories, the purpose of which is to expose the visiting Somalis to a methodology for dealing with loss and trauma which has itself been developed by victims. The tour seeks to replicate the success of a similar trip made earlier this year by parliamentarians from the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia.