17 Aug 2020

President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi August 17 participated in a virtual meeting of the 40th SADC heads of state and government which approved the  organisation’s Vision 2050.

Speaking during the summit, SADC executive secretary, Dr Stergomena Lawrence-Tax stated that the vision was based on a firm foundation of peace, security and democratic governance.

 She said it was premised on three interrelated pillars of industrial development, market integration, and infrastructure development as well as social and human capital development. 

 Dr Lawrence-Tax explained that the pillars recognised gender, youth, environment and climate change and disaster risk management as important cross-cutting components. 

 According to the secretary general, the summit also approved the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan 2020-2030 to operationalise the vision saying it also re-emphasised the need to fully implement the SADC Protocol on Gender and put in place concrete measures to improve the representation of women and youth in elected political positions.

Dr Lawrence-Tax said the summit noted the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 on SADC economies and approved proposed measures to address them.  

 The meeting endorsed an enhanced macroeconomic convergence surveillance mechanism that included high frequency data to complement the existing procedure.

On issues of regional peace and stability, Dr Lawrence-Tax said the summit welcomed the decision  by the Mozambican government to bring to the attention of SADC the violent attacks situation in the country and commended Mozambique for its continued efforts towards combating terrorism.

 SADC, she said, stood in solidarity and was committed  to support Mozambique in addressing the terrorism and violent attacks, and condemned all such acts. 

She reiterated SADC’s position on the reconfiguration of the Force Intervention Brigade in the Democratic Republic of Congo as submitted to the UN Secretary General, which, among others, emphasised that the Force Intervention Brigade should not be tampered with. 

 The summit expressed gratitude to the brigade troop contributing countries for the continued support to peace and security in eastern DRC and reiterated SADC’s continued support to DRC, she said. 

Dr Lawrence-Tax said the summit urged member states to take proactive measures to mitigate external interference and the impact of fake news as well as the abuse of social media, especially in electoral processes.

Also approved were an agreement amending the SADC Protocol on the Control of Firearms, Ammunition and Other Related Materials, mechanism in honour of the founders of SADC and a five-year sustainable self financing plan for SADC electoral observation missions.ends