By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is pleased with progress made by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on a number of issues of regional importance.
The issues include the reform process in the Kingdom of Lesotho, the conflict in Mozambique, the setting up of the SADC Logistics Centre and the anti-terrorism centre.
Ramaphosa was speaking at the conclusion of his working visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo where he was leading a South African delegation to the 42nd Ordinary Summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on 16 – 17 August 2022.
Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr Naledi Pandor, Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, and Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Thabang Makwetla, accompanied the President on the visit.
On the reform process in the Kingdom of Lesotho, Ramaphosa said he was pleased with the positive report tabled by Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro that serves as a real milestone in the lives of the Basotho.
SADC and South Africa played an important role in bringing about peace and normalcy in the Kingdom of Lesotho.
In a statement, the President said that SADC was also pleased with progress made in pushing back the insurgents in the Cabo Delgado area of the Republic of Mozambique and that SADC reaffirmed its “total commitment to supporting the people of Mozambique”.
“The pleasing thing was that the people who had fled the various areas in Cabo Delgado are now returning to their homes, with increased confidence that SADC has been helping them to bring about peace.”
Ramaphosa said he was also pleased with progress brought about by SADC in the setting up of its Logistics Centre in the Republic of Botswana that will assist the countries in the region to deal with emergency situations.
He said he was also pleased with progress made in the already operational anti-terrorism centre that is situated in the Republic of Tanzania.
“We will be able to bring around the various assistance measures when there are either situations where our armed forces needs to intervene, so there should be a good logistics depot or where there are other forms of emergency,” Ramaphosa said regarding the logistics centre.
The President is also pleased with SADC’s recorded progress on issues in the Kingdom of Eswatini and on challenges in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He said that he was happy that SADC is setting up a fact-finding mission on Eswatini and on its decision to send a panel of elders “to go and find effective ways to deal with the situation”.
Eswatini experienced a so-called “winter revolution” that saw two police officers killed and a European Union (EU) project disrupted.
Pro-democracy groups had high expectations that the SADC summit would address the Eswatini crisis, after it was removed from the agenda at the troika summit held in South Africa from 4-5 April this year.
The decision to send a panel of elders to Eswatini was arrived at, with King Mswati III in attendance, at the DRC meeting.
The Panel of Elders was set up in Malawi last year at the 41st heads of state summit.
The group is made up of eminent persons, including former heads of state and government, former ministers, as well as diplomats from SADC countries.
Meanwhile the 42nd Ordinary Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has elected the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, as chairperson of SADC.
Meanwhile, the President of the Republic of Angola, João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, has been elected as the incoming chairperson of SADC.
Tshisekedi succeeds the President of the Republic of Malawi, Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera.
The summit has also elected Dr. Hage G. Geingob, President of the Republic Namibia, as chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, and Hakainde Hichilema, the President of the Republic of Zambia, as the incoming chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.
Geingob succeeds President Cyril Ramaphosa as the outgoing chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.