22 Nov 2018

Germany President Mr Frank-Walter Steinmeier has reassured SADC of his country’s support.

President Steinmeier visited the regional body on November 21.

Speaking in an interview after holding bilateral talks with President Steinmeier at SADC headquarters in Gaborone, SADC executive secretary, Dr Stergomena Tax said Germany was one of SADC’s major partners as a country and also as part of European Union.

She said Germany had supported SADC in a number of areas to enhance governance, accountability, and development of the institution, mentioning Germany support in infrastructural development through the Project Preparation and Development Facility (PPDF) and in issues of peace and security.

Dr Tax  said Germany had over the years been supporting the regional organ through disbursement of financial resources to undertake SADC elections observer missions in member states.

This, she said, had enhanced regional peace and security, which was aligned to SADC priorities of implementing its Strategy and Roadmap 2015-2063 to complement SADC initiatives on industrialisation, regional market integration, and infrastructure development.  

The PPDF, she said, was designed to address the implementation of the SADC Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan (RIDMP), which was targeted at promotion of regional economic integration.

Dr Tax said SADC had made progress in various development areas as a result of support from Germany.

“Basically what we have exchanged in terms of our cooperation, we explained the developments and the achievements so far. Our focus is on industrialisation, but also peace and security remains our major priority,” she said.

She said  President Steinmeier appreciated SADC operations and its model of development.  

“Yes, we are not yet there in terms of the conventional stakes of integration, but progress is very visible,” she said.

Furthermore, Dr Tax touched on the Zimbabwe economic situation, saying the country had instituted reforms to bring it back to its hay days.

“As SADC we are very clear that Zimbabwe is on the right path. They are faced with economic challenges and they have a programme that is enabling them to do that and SADC is supporting them,” she disclosed.

She said to aid Zimbabwe’s road to economic recovery, it was critical for countries to lift economic sanctions on Zimbabwe.  

“We made it clear that for them to be able to do that they needed to be out of sanctions. We requested him to help us in that journey to request the other partners to lift sanctions on Zimbabwe. ENDS