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BREXIT LESSONS FOR SADC AGENDA

27/05/2016 01:47:00 By Martin Dlamini

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AS citizens of the United Kingdom prepare for a June 23, 2016 referendum on whether or not the country should continue being a member of the European Union (EU), we have reason to be keenly interested spectators as we move towards the integration of Africa.

More so with Swaziland assuming the chairmanship of the 15-member Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) in August and leading the charge in taking the regional integration agenda to the next level.

This is not the first referendum for the UK. About 40 years ago, those in favour of joining the EU won the day. So what has changed? Europe and Africa may be continents apart but they are trade relatives with a long history of colonisation. The EU feeds us with foreign exchange for our natural resources and crops, so any change in its fortunes directly affects our bottom line.

The European Union (EU) is said to have contributed over E3.6 billion (€206 million) to regional integration and infrastructure projects in SADC and provided over E650 million (€37.5 million) to both SADC and COMESA to fight piracy in the Indian Ocean as ‘security is increasingly important to the facilitation of Europe’s trade in goods by sea’. This is according to a recent policy advisory group seminar report on region-building and peace-building, compiled by the Centre for Conflict Resolution and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung organisation after a seminar involving SADC member countries in February.

From what we read in the media, the major bone of contention for the disgruntled UK people is that most of this money comes from their taxes. They feel their country is putting more into the EU, financially, than it is getting back and now want this money to be better used for growing needs of the people. They complain that most immigrants get paid and send this money to their home countries, which is not helping the UK economy.
There is also the argument that the UK has the strongest Financial Services sector in the EU and independence would liberate it from ‘troublesome’ legislation from Brussels, thus making British banks more competitive than the United States or Asia. Could we face similar challenges in SADC? Do we have a super country that the free movement of people would cause it to be flooded like Britain?

South Africa comes to mind and the recent xenophobic attacks on immigrants raised the red flag on some of the possible conflict scenarios that this noble integration agenda could present. SA is also the biggest financial contributor to SACU and most likely to the intended regional economy.
The African states are all upbeat about integration plans guided by the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), adopted in 2003, which provides a broad strategy for implementing the organisation’s policies over a 15-year timeframe (2005-2020). The African Union Agenda 2063 also seeks to integrate the regional economic communities (RECs) of the continent.

A recent survey by Afrobarometer, an organisation that asses people’s opinions on issues, put the Africa /regional integration agenda topic up for discussion and came up with diverse findings. In its latest round of surveys, Afrobarometer asked citizens in 36 African countries four relevant questions: Whether they prefer free or restricted cross-border movement of people and goods, how easy or difficult cross-border movement currently is, whether governments should assume a regional role in protecting democracy and human rights or instead respect their neighbours’ sovereignty, and how helpful they think the AU and RECs are to their countries.

The organisation found that on average, a majority of Africans favour free cross-border movement of people and goods with Zimbabweans topping this view followed by Swazis, but this is not the majority view, in 15 of those countries and not surprisingly South Africans falling into this category. Another interesting finding in the report is that about three in 10 citizens don’t know enough about these organisations to have an opinion.

So what can we take from the Brexit experience and the Afrobarometer report? The Brexit debate and the lessons it provides even before June 23, cannot be ignored as these may have a significant influence in just how far Swaziland can move the integration agenda to the next level and avoid referendums for member states.