SADC member states need to be sincere

The outstanding question is are all the 14 SADC countries committed to the cause of regional integration or are some out there just for personal benefit whilst they give very little? The latter appears to be the case in our view. It is common knowledge that when the three founding fathers who are all late, in Sir Seretse Khama of Botswana, Dr Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Zambia’s Dr Kenneth Kaunda who were of the same group- formed the organ, they were not just forming a boys social club, but rather their vision was to come up with a formidable and a reputable, efficient and responsive enabler of Regional Integration and Sustainable Development.

The organ was formed during the most difficult times, during the time when some of the countries such as South Africa and Namibia were still led by the minority and oppressive regimes, while the likes of Angola who were independent were riddled in civil war. Through the founding fathers’ vision, SADC’s objectives went beyond just dependence reduction to embrace basic development and regional integration. It was formed with four principal objectives, namely Reduction of Member State dependence, particularly, but not only on apartheid South Africa, Forging of linkages to create genuine and equitable regional integration, Mobilization of Member States’ resources to promote the implementation of national, interstate and regional policies, and Concerted action to secure international cooperation within the framework of the strategy for economic liberation.

In a way that has been achieved, as evidenced by the fact that SADC has a fully-fledged secretariat that runs the daily basis of the regional bloc. Furthermore SADC is regarded as the most efficient regional bloc in the African continent. A scrutiny of SADC documents shows that after several years’ intensive work on its institutional development, supported by the EU and by Germany through GIZ, the SADC Secretariat was officially recognised in 2012 as having international standards in accounting, audit, internal controls and procurement. Further that by meeting these standards and achieving this status, SADC is now eligible to receive and manage packages of financial assistance using its own internal systems and controls.

This kind of arrangement, under Contribution Agreements, enables the EU to provide more direct and flexible financial support to SADC. In addition, the internal controls and monitoring procedures developed by SADC Secretariat will improve its own governance, transparency and accountability, and will result in improved decision-making and management. SADC through its organ on Politics Defence and Security Cooperation is now able to restore order in all member states using their own resources whenever the need arises. The fact of the matter is the scales have long changed South Africa has been independent for two decades, while Namibia has more than that with the civil war having long stopped in Angola. This now calls for a strong SADC Secretariat, which will call upon the member states to be realistic.

Member states have to stop being complacent and come up with strategies that can consolidate what has been achieved thus far and bring up everlasting peace among the regional bloc. Today we still hear of many countries and or respective presidents wanting to flout their constitutions by extending the presidential term to more than the stipulated two terms in office. Among those countries is South Africa who tried to do it with President Thabo Mbeki, then Namibia under President Sam Nujoma who claimed that the Namibians still want him and lately the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Joseph Kabila.

During all this time, none of the heads of states came out in the open to condemn such a move let alone express disappointment through a joint Communiqué’ at the end of Summit meeting where it is believed such issues are discussed. It is against this background that we are calling on Heads of States to be true to each other. It is common knowledge that after every election in the region all observe missions including Khama always say the elections were free and fair even if they were not as was the case in Zimbabwe in 2009. However, it took President Khama’s boldness to challenge what was growing into an acceptable norm. 

What is worrying is that some members appear not to be committed to the SADC cause, this is so because some of the members, such as Madagascar and Mauratius, only want to benefit than to give out.