By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa reaffirmed the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) commitment to promoting peace, security and political stability in the region through the implementation of the SADC Protocol on Politics, Defense and Security Cooperation.
Ramaphosa addressed virtual Extraordinary SADC Summit that took place under theme “Advancing Industrialisation, Agricultural Transformation, and Energy Transition for a Resilient SADC” .
In his opening address, Ramaphosa stated that one of the summit’s objectives was to consider a report from the chairperson of the SADC Organ on the political and security situation in Madagascar.
“As you will recall, we convened a similar session during the past month to attend to an urgent issue pertaining to the leadership of our organisation. In September 2025, the Republic of Madagascar experienced political challenges that resulted in the formation of a transitional government.
In light of this development, the extraordinary SADC Organ Troika summit convened on 16th October to assess the situation in the country.
The Organ Troika summit resolved to urgently deploy a technical mission to undertake a fact-finding mission to Madagascar, with a report expected to be presented at the summit, “said Ramaphosa.
What began in late September as Madagascar’s student demonstrations over crippling electricity outages and water shrotages quickly evolved into broader demands for political reform. It became a call to dismantle a system widely seen as corrupt and unaccountable, and for President Andy Rajoelina to resign.
As demonstrations swelled across the country, the embattled president sought to restore order through curfews, the dismissal of his energy minister, and ultimately the dissolution of his government. To no avail.
Eventually, the elite CAPSAT unit – the same corps that had propelled Rajoelina to power during the 2009 coup – overthrew him.
The 2023 Africa Governance Report on unconstitutional changes of government warned – in bold lettering – “instability may result if elections are not considered credible”.
Ramaphosa also expressed particular concern over the security situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, describing it as a matter of “grave concern,” and called for sustained regional efforts to restore stability.
The DRC government has said the M23 armed group’s unfulfilled pledge to withdraw from the key town of Uvira is a “distraction”, as the group said its conditions for a pullout were yet to be met.
Patrick Muyaya, a spokesperson for the Democratic Republic of Congo’s government, said Wednesday that the group’s statement it would withdraw from the town in South Kivu province, in line with a request from US mediators, was a “non-event, a diversion, a distraction”.
The intention is to distract the American mediation team, which is preparing to take measures against Rwanda, “Muyaya told Reuters.
The Rwanda-backed militia seized the strategic town last week, imperilling a tenuous US-brokered peace agreement between Kinshasa and Kigali signed and fanfare just days earlier and raising fears of a widening conflict.
The seizure of the town led US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to accuse Rwanda, which denies backing M23 rebels, of a “clear violation” of the deal, promising that Washington would “take action to ensure promises made to the president are kept”.
M23 spokesperson Willy Ngoma had told Reuters that the group was “ready to leave, but our conditions have to be reviewed”.
The group said a neutral force must be deployed to maintain security in the town if the group were to pull out, to avoid a repeat of previous withdrawals that it says have led to renewed violence.