by Munetsi Madakufamba – SANF 05 no 71
Botswana President Festus Mogae, who has just taken over the rotating chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), has outlined a vision that is centred on speedy implementation of the organisation’s commitments.
Speaking at the official opening of SADC’s Silver Jubilee Summit in Gaborone, Botswana, on 17 August, Mogae underscored the need to implement the organisation’s policy documents. He cited the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), SADC’s 15-year blueprint that was adopted by summit in 2003.
“During my tenure as chairperson, I commit to devote my energy to ensuring the speedy implemetation of the RISDP and summit decisions,” said the Botswana president in accepting the rotating SADC chair.
Mogae, who took over as chairperson of the 13-member organization from the new Prime Minister of Mauritius Navinchandra Ramgoolam, will be at the helm for the next 12 months. Mauritius assumed the chair in August 2004 under the leadership of Paul Berenger who lost the country’s general elections that was held last month.
In his acceptance speech, Mogae said democracy is alive in southern Africa, and the peaceful change of leadership in Mauritius is a living example of that.
Mogae’s unhappiness about the lack of progress on implementation of SADC decisions can be traced back to last year’s summit in Mauritius. He laid the blame squarely on the SADC Secretariat which he said was moving too slowly on completing the restructuring exercise started in 2001.
In particular, he said in Mauritius, the recruitment exercise was moving too slowly and the construction of the new headquarters of the organization’s secretariat had not started despite the decision having been made and land donated by the government of Botswana four years earlier.
While acknowledging “modest improvement” during the last 12 months, the Botswana president said the process needs to be speeded up. He demonstrated his commitment when he led his fellow heads of state and government to a ceremony to lay the foundation stone at the venue of the new SADC headquarters where construction is expected to begin later this year.
Mogae’s call for urgency comes at a time when SADC is reflecting on its achievements and challenges over the last quarter of a century. SADC was formally launched as the Southern Africa Coordination Conference (SADCC) by a summit on 1 April 1980 in the Zambian capital, Lusaka.
SADC’s history is rooted in the Front Line States from which it inherited its strong bonds of solidarity and unity. In Lusaka, the leaders committed “to pursue policies aimed at economic liberation and integrated development of our national economies”.
The nine founding nations were Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. New members later joined, starting with Namibia in 1990, South Africa (1994), Mauritius (1995) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (1997). Madagascar was granted a candidate membership status last year and a decision is expected by the end of the current summit.
During the first decade of formation, SADCC pursued four main priorities, which were to:
- reduce member states dependence, particularly, but not only, on apartheid South Africa;
- implement programmes and projects with national and regional impact;
- mobilize member states’ resources in the quest for collective self-reliance; and
- secure international understanding and support.
With special focus on food and agriculture, industry, human resource development, energy, and transport and communications, the organization pursued its objectives with reasonable success.
However, the changing political and socio-economic landscape in the late 80s and early 90s necessitated a redefinition of approach and mandates. For instance, the attainment of independence by Namibia in 1990 and the release from prison of Nelson Mandela the same year signified an end to institutional apartheid in the region.
On 17 August 1992, southern African heads of state and government met in Windhoek, Namibia, where they transformed the “Coordination Conference” into the “Development Community” through a declaration and treaty. All member states now celebrate 17 August as the SADC Day.
While the old SADCC sought to coordinate member states economies, the new SADC seeks to integrate them into a single whole. In effect, the 1992 SADC Treaty gives the organization legal status, which is also backed by about 30 protocols and other legal instruments that have been adopted over the years.
However, a worrying concern has been the slow pace in implementation of these protocols as well as the pivotal RISDP.
President Mogae confirmed this when he told his colleagues that “a number of protocols have been signed, ratified and come into force but are gathering dust in our shelves”.
He called for an efficient use of resources by trimming priorities.
“Without priorities, everything is a priority and we deny ourselves the opportunity to concentrate our efforts in those programmes that will bring in the highest development returns in the shortest possible time,” Mogae said. (SARDC)
