POLITICS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: SADC Summit Under Way

A free trade agreement is one of the main points on the agenda at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit presently under way in Johannesburg, South Africa. The summit will also discuss political problems in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Lesotho and consider protocols on gender and poverty eradication.

The summit formally opened on Thursday with the outgoing chair, Zambia, handing over to South Africa who will hold the position for a year. South Africa’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Mandisi Mpahlwa, chaired the SADC Ministerial Task Force on Regional Economic Integration which deliberated on a customs union for SADC and the regional free trade area which will be launched on August 17.

At the Ministerial Task Force on Regional Integration, chaired by South African foreign affairs minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the crisis in Zimbabwe was the main talking point among delegates, with Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe controversially participating in the summit. The Botswana president Ian Khama is boycotting the summit in protest.

"The authorities in Harare under the present circumstances should not be represented at the political level at any SADC summit as that would be equal to giving them legitimacy," said a statement from Botswana's foreign ministry.

Power-sharing talks between Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and the two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change are stalled; the leaders of all three parties to the talks are present at the summit.

Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday, SADC Executive Secretary Tomasz Salomão conceded that while the region faced challenges, it remained stable: "There are no conflicts and no wars. Yes, we do have challenges in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi and Zimbabwe. The summit will give us a chance to see how we address these challenges and the challenge that we had a few months ago in South Africa."

Salomão was referring to xenophobic attacks that took place in South Africa in May this year, claiming more than 60 lives and displacing tens of thousands of migrants.

Also on the agenda is the Southern Africa Gender Protocol. The draft protocol commits member states to gender parity at all levels of government; to amend or repeal laws that discriminate against women; devise policies and laws to enable equal access to economic resources by women and men; bring in gender-sensitive policies to fight HIV and AIDS and enshrine gender equality in their constitutions.

The protocol was not signed at previous summits and gender activists are hoping that it will be in signed this year.

Speaking at the protocol alliance strategy meeting on Thursday morning, South African Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad assured the women and men present that it will be on this year's agenda. "August in South Africa is women’s month, so it is important that this historic summit is happening here. South Africa is committed to signing it.

"It is not only Africa’s time that has come, but Africa’s women’s time that has come."

The protocol has been approved by SADC's Council of Ministers and will now pass to heads of state for final deliberation.

Also recommended to heads of state are a protocol on poverty eradication and food security; consideration of reduced energy supplies in the region; and the re-admission of the Seychelles -- which pulled out of SADC in 2003, unable to meet its financial obligations to the regional grouping.

SADC, which was formerly known as the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC), has been in existence since 1980 when it was formed in Lusaka, Zambia with the slogan "Southern Africa: Towards Economic Liberation".

SADC's current member states are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.