17 Aug 2015

It is incumbent on the countries that constitute the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to ensure that they exploit their natural endowment to develop the material living conditions of the average citizen.

These were the sentiments expressed by the President of Namibia, Dr Hage Geingob during his maiden address to the 35^th SADC Summit in Gaborone on Monday August 17.

Dr Geingob said that it was inappropriate for the levels of poverty in a naturally endowed region such as SADC to be high, especially at a time when most of the region enjoyed peace and had developed democratic institutions.

“Many of our people lack basic needs. This is painful for a region abundant in natural resources. Our people do not eat natural resources. Our people do not eat democracy. Our people do not eat good constitutions,” he said.

“Democracy is, however, a sine quo non to provide our people with their basic needs,” said Dr Geingob adding that Southern African countries have to take advantage of democratic institutions to harness socio-economic development.

“Exportation of raw materials simply means exportation of jobs. 

In effect it denies us the opportunity to industrialise our countries and fully develop our human capital. 

We need to bring a halt to the existing trend by which we trade in goods that we do not consume, and consume goods that we do not produce,” he said.

Dr Geingob urged the region to expedite a solution to the region’s electricity deficit, and address the ‘severe drought’ affecting the region.

He also urged regional states to prioritise self-sufficiency, adding that depending on foreign countries and institutions for financial support negates the long-term domestic development process.

“If we would like to see sustained and broad based economic development in our region, we need to reduce our dependency on official development aid, and we must safeguard our economic sovereignty. 

No matter how meager our financial resources may be, I believe that if we pull together we will achieve our objective of an industralised and prosperous region,” Dr Geingob said.

Making his maiden speech at the summit having been sworn in as Namibia’s third president earlier this year, Dr Geingob reminded his audience he was speaking exactly 23 years to the day when the SADC Treaty was signed in his country’s capital, Windhoek.

The SADC Treaty converted the regional body into an economic community, charting a new course for an organisation that had been founded in 1980 as the Southern African Development Coordinating Conference (SADCC), initially focusing on lessening member states’ economic dependence on apartheid South Africa. BOPA