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1.5 The Journey Toward Economic Integration and Development
The journey toward economic integration and development in Africa began much more
than 40 years ago in the long-range vision of African leaders and people, and their passion-
ate commitment to freedom, unity and prosperity.
The vision was consolidated by the leaders of independent African countries meet-
ing in 1963 in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to form the Organisation of African
Unity (OAU) and a Coordinating Committee known as the OAU Liberation Committee.
Freedom and political independence was the goal eventually achieved in 1990 and
1994 when, first Namibia and then South Africa joined after shedding the formal apartheid
system and holding majority elections.
Independent African countries were already working toward the next goal of econ-
omic liberation and integration, by starting to form the eight Regional Economic Com-
munities (RECs) on the continent that are the building blocks of the African Economic
Community (AEC).
SADC is one of these RECs and had a difficult birth as the Southern African
Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) that lasted more than a decade until
after its transformation into a regional community, the SADC, in 1992 following Nami-
bia’s independence and as South Africa moved inexorably to end the entrenched apart-
heid system.
In Durban in 2002, a free South Africa proudly hosted the transformation of the
continental organisation the OAU into a modern African Union (AU).
Forty years after the formation of SADCC, all Member States are members of the
African Union, and in mid-2019 SADC took its place at the inaugural meeting for African
Union - RECs Coordination, in line with the AU reform agenda that requires regular en- 25
gagement with RECs to assess progress in achieving continental integration.
The RECs are required to prepare reports on the status of integration within their
respective regions, and progress to the overall agenda for an integrated continent as envi-
sioned in the AU’s Agenda 2063 and the Abuja Treaty that calls for the establishment of
an African Economic Community.
The reform of the SADC structure and institutional framework following its trans-
formation from SADCC in 1992 has shown the strong commitment by Member States to
consolidate regional economic and political integration, and accelerate the process towards
a continental economic community.
SADC has come a long way since 1980, determined to deliver peace, dignity and
development to the people of the region. Much was achieved by SADCC in the various
cooperation areas, but its greatest achievements were completing political independence
and establishing a firm foundation for regional integration, generating a spirit of solidarity
and a sense of regional belonging that goes beyond governments to the broader community
to demonstrate a vision of unity through the tangible benefits of working together.
SADC began as an idea, a dream that seemed impossible in the situation of the
time, and yet there could be no solution without it. In the courage of the first steps was
found the impetus to proceed with implementation, no matter how difficult were the
hurdles. And they were difficult.
SADC’s emergent years are not easy to imagine now or explain to generations who
were not present, but the region and its institutions emerged in freedom on the boundaries
of racism and apartheid, on the frontline. SADC emerged not so much in resistance but
in the will of a people and the determination of their visionary founders to chart their
own destiny, together.