Africans opened a new home for the first Pan-African Parliament yesterday at a colourful event in Johannesburg marred only by a civil servant strike.

South African President Thabo Mbeki was joined by Indian President Abdul Kalam, singer Miriam Makeba, dancers and other luminaries to welcome the assembly?s 265 members to their new home in Midrand, a business district near Johannesburg.

Formed in the image of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the assembly was inaugurated in Addis Ababa last March and will be Africa?s first representative body. It will initially advise its 53 member states on policy issues ranging from HIV/AIDS to stifling debt, but will eventually seek to generate legislation and harmonise laws, and tackle questions such as poor governance.

Intended to bolster Africa?s democratic credentials and win more foreign investment for the continent, critics of the scheme say it will be little more than an ineffective debating chamber on a continent where rulers of several states owe their power to coups or polls regarded as flawed by international observers. Despite the historic occasion, the majority of the South African media focused attention on a one-day strike by public sector workers over a wage dispute which analysts said had embarrassed Mbeki in the eyes of a continental audience. ?This session will be brief and will probably address protocol and funding issues,? said South Africa?s deputy foreign minister Sue van der Merwe.