EDITORIAL COMMENT: New Sadc chair mustn’t reinvent the wheel General (Retired) Khama
General (Retired) Khama

General (Retired) Khama . . .whose country is notorious for taking contrary positions to regional and continental ones, will hopefully not mistake domestic policy for the regional agenda.

TODAY President Mugabe hands over chairmanship of the 15-member Sadc to his deputy, Seretse Khama Ian Khama of Botswana after a successful year of steering the Sadc ship to its founding values, namely resource nationalism and safeguarding the territorial integrity of member states. President Mugabe’s tenure was historic not only because Zimbabwe moved from an agenda item to regional leadership over the past two years, but in that he helped stabilise the peace and security situation in the region.

It’s worth remembering that from assuming the chair at a time the region was seized with three hotspots in the DRC, Lesotho and Madagascar; President Mugabe hands over the chair at a time leaders are seized with only the situation in Lesotho which suffered an attempted coup.

President Mugabe also leaves the chair after putting the industrialisation of the region firmly on the agenda after industrialisation was identified by the 34th Summit held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe last August as a key enabler for the region’s sustainable socio-economic development.

An extra-ordinary Summit was subsequently held in Harare in April this year to discuss the industrialisation strategy and roadmap.

And to ensure that industrialisation remains topical, the 35th Summit is being held under the theme, “Accelerating Industrialisation of Sadc Economies, Through Transformation of Natural Endowments and Improved Human Capital.”

This theme dovetails with Zim-Asset (Zimbabwe’s own Agenda 263) which feeds into the African Union’s Agenda 2063, all of which advocate economic transformation and sustainable development through beneficiation and value addition of natural resources.

The prioritisation of industrialisation came out of the realisation that southern Africa, which is dubbed the “Persian Gulf of Minerals”, was getting precious little in returns from its generous natural resource endowments which are exported mostly in raw form as many member states lack vibrant industries to beneficiate or value-add the resources before export.

We thus hope that Lt Gen (Rtd) Khama, will not seek to reinvent the wheel, but will build on the foundation laid by his predecessor.

A foundation founded on the ideals that influenced the transformation of the regional bloc from a co-ordination conference to a development community.

We also hope the Batswana leader, whose country is notorious for taking contrary positions to regional and continental ones, will not mistake domestic policy for the regional agenda.

That said the region has the Troika system that Sadc has effectively employed since its 11th Summit in Maputo, Mozambique, in August 1999; to thank for ensuring continuity.

The troika system operates at the level of the Summit; the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation; the Council of Ministers and the Standing Committee of Senior Officials.

As such Zimbabwe remains a critical component of regional leadership for the coming year as a member of the Summit Troika that brings together the incumbent chair, the deputy chair and immediate past chairperson.

We wish Sadc leaders the best as they deliberate challenges facing the region.

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