by Munetsi Madakufamba – SANF 04 no 79
This article is part of our special daily coverage of SADC regional issues at the SADC Summit currently taking place in Grand Baie, Mauritius
GRAND BAIE, MAURITIUS, 18 August — The annual summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) ended in Mauritius on 17 August with leaders of the economic and political bloc taking decisive steps towards self-determination.
In a landmark move, the leaders unanimously adopted common electoral guidelines, which set standards upon which future elections in SADC member states will be judged. The charter contains procedures to be followed by SADC observer teams and minimum standards that a member state should follow if its election is to be declared free and fair.
According to a communiqué issued at the end of the summit, the electoral guidelines “aim at enhancing the transparency and credibility of elections and democratic governance as well as ensuring the acceptance of election results by all contesting parties”. The guidelines are with immediate effect.
In another unprecedented move, all member states made a US$500,000-commitment as seed money for the construction of the SADC headquarters in Gaborone, Botswana. The government of Botswana donated, four years ago, a piece of land for the construction of new, bigger SADC offices needed to accommodate the enlarged Secretariat.
The summit was highly critical of the slow pace at which the Secretariat is implementing its decisions. SADC leaders adopted a restructuring exercise in 2001, immediately directing that all institutions be moved from member states for central management at the headquarters.
Four directorates have since been established but they are, like most other new structures at the Secretariat, served by staff on short-term contracts. The leaders noted that this has resulted in unnecessary uncertainty and anxiety among staff members. New SADC chairperson, Mauritian Prime Minister Paul Berenger pledged to visit the Secretariat as early as October to deal with the matter.
Another landmark decision was the adoption of the Hashim Mbita Project, which is “meant to document the history of the liberation struggle in southern Africa”. The summit directed the project’s core group, led by retired brigadier Hashim Mbita, former chair of the Organisation of African Unity’s (OAU) Liberation Committee and current Tanzanian ambassador to Zimbabwe, to report on progress within three months.
The SADC Secretariat, which was also directed to report back in three months, was tasked to spearhead resource mobilisation for the project. Mozambique and Namibia were commended for leading the way as they pledged US$100,000 each towards the project.
The leaders reviewed the socio-economic and political situation in southern Africa, noting among other issues “the power supply situation in the SADC region will reach crisis levels by 2007 if no concrete steps are taken to increase the region’s power generation capacity”.
To this end, the summit urged member states to fast track the implementation of short-term priority power generation projects such as the Inga project on the Congo river.
Regarding the HIV and AIDS pandemic, the summit underscored the importance of nutrition and traditional medicine. “Summit noted the establishment of a ministerial committee on traditional medicine consisting of Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe… [which] will make proposals on the promotion of research on safety, efficacy and use of traditional medicine,” reads the communiqué.
The SADC leaders urged member states that have not attained the 1997 gender target, of a minimum of 30 percent of women’s representation in political and decision-making structures by 2005, to take advantage of forthcoming elections. There was a special commendation for South Africa, which surpassed the target in terms of parliamentary and cabinet representation following the election in April this year.
The Indian island state of Madagascar, which had applied for membership, was accorded “candidate membership status” for one year, in line with new rules for admission of new members. The country’s president, Marc Ravalomanana attended the closing ceremony of the summit.
The summit witnessed the handover of the SADC chair from Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa to Prime Minister Berenger. Botswana’s President Festus Mogae, who will host the 2005 summit, was elected deputy chair.
A new Troika was also elected to lead the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, to be chaired by South Africa, while Namibia is deputy and Lesotho, as past chair, is the other member. (SARDC)
