CIVIL SOCIETY SHOULD ENGAGE SADC

THE 44th Ordinary SADC Summit of Heads State and Government, which was held August 2024 in Harare, Zimbabwe under the theme: ‘Promoting Innovation to unlock opportunities for sustained economic growth and development towards an Industrialised SADC’ has been concluded.   

There has been concerns from various civil society actors whether SADC is concerned about the struggles of the people of the region, namely, human rights violations, undermining of the rule of law, worsening poverty, weak economies, high unemployment and conflicts that are causing untold suffering in the DRC and the Republic of Mozambique.

Brutalised

It is well documented how the Zimbabwe government brutalised human rights defenders and opposition who were not allowed to protest before and during the SADC Summit.   As a result, a number were arrested and severely tortured.  There was a relentless campaign to persuade SADC member states to select another venue as Harare was a hostile to civil society and plea fell on deaf ears. We recall that Southern Africa Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) was formalised in 1980 to advance the cause of national political liberation in Southern Africa, and to reduce dependence particularly on the then apartheid era South Africa; through effective coordination of utilisation of the specific characteristics and strengths of each country and its resources. The SADCC objectives went beyond just dependence reduction to embrace basic development and regional integration. Hence, SADCC was formed with four principal objectives, namely:

• Reduction of Member State dependence, particularly, but not only, on apartheid South Africa.
• Forging of linkages to create genuine and equitable regional integration.
• Mobilisation of Member States’ resources to promote the implementation of national, interstate and regional policies.
• Concerted action to secure international cooperation within the framework of the strategy for economic liberation.

Following the end of colonialism and apartheid in South Africa and Namibia, there was adoption of the Southern Africa Development Community Treaty in Windhoek in 1992.  It is stated in Article 23 that:
1. “In pursuance of the objectives of this treaty, SADC shall seek to involve fully, the people of the Region and key stakeholders in the process of regional integration.
2. SADC shall co-operate with, and support the initiatives of the peoples of the Region and key stakeholders, contributing to the objectives of this Treaty in the areas of co-operation in order to foster closer relations among the communities, associations and people of the region.
3. for the purposes of this article, key stakeholders include: private sector, civil society, non-governmental organisations, workers and employers organisations.
It is also stated in the preamble that ‘mindful of the need to involve the people of the region centrally in the process of development and integration, particularly through the guarantee of democratic rights, observance of human rights and the rule of law’.   Clearly, the founding fathers of the SADC envisaged a regional body not just for governments but for the peoples of the region.

Hence, the involvement of the people’s region was seen as a critical commitment. While SADC has made strides in setting up various institutions, regrettably, the SADC Civil Society Engagement Mechanism to operationalise mechanism for the involvements of the peoples of the region, it has taken a long time to finalise CSOs-SADC engagement framework. It is, however, gratifying to note that on August 11-12, 2024, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), in collaboration with non-State actors (NSAs) and with the support of the European Union (EU), held a Capacity-Building Workshop on the implementation of the SADC Mechanism for Engaging with NSA, as well as explore mechanism to pilot the accreditation of civil society organisations for meaningful engagement with SADC.

It is also concerning that civil society Organisations and opposition political parties in the region are viewed with suspicion by SADC member States. Their call for democracy, protection of human rights, rule of law is viewed as a western influenced regime change agenda meant to destabilise SADC member states. Yet these are values embedded in the SADC 1992 Treaty and various protocols. I would like to argue that civil society should not give up on SADC in spite of glaring weaknesses such as appointing the Zimbabwe president as chair, while he is a product of a flawed election process and the removal of Eswatini from the SADC Agenda without consulting Eswatini stakeholders. These SADC weaknesses should be an incentive for civil society to campaign for a SADC that is people centred.

What should civil society organisations do?

• We need to understand the history, SADC Treaty, SADC institutions, protocols in order to identify opportunities for advocacy.
• There is need to familiarise ourselves with the SADC Civil Society Engagement Mechanism and accreditation process.
• Participate in SADC processes at national and regional levels.

Nothing will change unless, we keep advocating for a people centred SADC.

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