Examining SADC’s transformational journey
Dolly Byrone Thebe | Monday August 23, 2021 06:00
We pay lots of money to go there at the Security Council. We make speeches, we go home year in, year out and at the end of the day, the bosses in the Security Council say we shall never have the powers that we have as the permanent members”, said Mugabe. He was talking about the failure to walk the talk. In the eyes of Mugabe, UN meetings turned to be a routine formality, which at the end of the day did not bring change, which members especially in Africa were seeking. When appraising the work of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) since inception over 40 years ago, one cannot resist the temptation of borrowing a leaf from Mugabe, to say despite successes here and there, SADC has largely remained a talking shop on many fronts. The spirit of nationalism, which had gathered momentum in the 1960’s, began to pay dividends as many colonial masters began to pack and leave, ushering in a new era of self-determination and freedom in many African countries.
However, by the 1980’s Southern Africa remained unique and peculiar, as there were some pockets of the sub-continent still labouring and suffering under the yoke of colonialism and apartheid. Namibia in the West remained under the shackles of the stubborn apartheid South Africa, Zimbabwe in the north and South Africa toiled under white minority racist regimes.
It was against this background that political turmoil and insecurity that the Southern African Development Coordinating Conference (SADCC) was launched in Lusaka, Zambia on April 1, 1980. The circumstances of the time dictated the agenda of the nine-member loose alliance and the goal was to wipe off the last vestiges of colonialism, secure durable peace, security and economic development. Shortly after its formation, Zimbabwe gained her independence on April 18, 1980 and SADCC could register this as its first step towards total political liberation of southern Africa on account of efforts made by its precursor - the Frontline States. With the subsequent liberation of Namibia in 1990 and the end of apartheid In South Africa in 1994, SADCC can look back with a sense of pride and accomplishment that its relentless efforts had finally paid off.
Having accomplished its mission of achieving political freedom the SADCC loose alliance began to desire to up its game when it transformed itself into a development community (SADC) in 1992 laced with a legal character. Over time, SADC then came up with an ambitious agenda of addressing issues of poverty, raising the quality of life, accelerating economic development and intra-regional trade, building free trade arrangement, sustenance of peace and security, promotion of good governance and democracy. And later on, protocols were developed to achieve these ends. Known and widely documented SADC accomplishments on the political front, conflict resolution and management are restoration of peace and stability in the kingdom of Lesotho, facilitating the conduct of peaceful elections and contributing to the maintenance of peace in the Northern and Eastern regions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The latter was carried under the auspices of the UN.
In Madagascar, SADC deployed former president of Mozambique Joacquim Chissano to bring together warring parties, which resulted in restoration of peace and tranquility. After a period of prolonged hesitation and indecisiveness, SADC recently decided to deploy a peacekeeping force in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, to contain the three-year old extremist violent attacks. The organiation's delaying tactics and lack of swift response had given the insurgents a free regin for far too long to displace hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, cause untold human suffering and wastage of human lives. The insurgency is believed to be an old and deep-seated problem occasioned by the inability of the government of Mozambique to address issues of poverty, inequalities, and uneven distribution of resources in the country.
Meanwhile, Professor Yusuf Adam, has been quoted elsewhere as having said, “ Mozambique government waited too long to try and address the differences (between landowners who were Muslims and farmers who were Christians) and perhaps importantly to tackle systemic poverty and inequality.” The failure of Mozambique to address poverty is also SADC's failure to achieve its goals of improving economic development, raising the quality of life and bringing about regional economic integration. After 40 years of its existence, SADC continues to leave individual countries to their own devices to tackle their own economic challenges. This means SADC’s aim of ensuring industrialisation and economic advancement has failed dismally. SADC is in Mozambique to provide a military solution to an otherwise long standing economic and political issue. The military intervention would bring a sense of temporary relief and alleviation of human suffering. But, it may not deliver a permanent and durable solution. Adam contends that a military solution is no solution to the problem as there is need to try a negotiated settlement.
On the economic front, SADC has not gone beyond developing protocols and signing of papers expressing intent. On the ground, SADC effectively remains a paper-pushing organisation. Free trade arrangement exists but only on paper. There is uneven development in southern African countries inhibiting of small economies of taking advantage of the free trade agreement. In 2016, intra trade status was believed to be hovering around 20% as compared to 5% in 1980. Of course, the modest improvement must be acknowledged considering where SADC was coming from but this is not sufficient enough to change the trajectory of ordinary lives of member states. At its 40th summit, SADC executive secretary Strergomena Lawrence Tax stated that SADC has a task ahead to enhance competitiveness and productive capacities of members to enable them utilise the free trade market area. So many member states because of lack of industrial development, which SADC failed to facilitate, are not in a position to exploit the market of 16 member strong entity with a collective GDP of US$720 billion and an estimated population of 340 million. If this is not a glaring failure on the part of SADC, then one does not know what it is. SADC by its own admission is too weak to exploit COMESA-EAC-SADC tripartite free trade area, which again brings a combined population of 700 million and a GDP of over US$1.4trilion.
It is evidently clear that the goal of industrial development and promotion of intra-regional trade remains an ever moving and elusive target. It seems SADC has a long way to go before this becomes a reality. Perhaps, one of the glaring political blunders committed by SADC is to continue to turn a blind eye to the situation in Eswatini. The latter continues to exist under an archaic political system where the will of the monarch reigns supreme at the cost of the voice of the people. SADC, since formation, chose and continues to elect to coexist with the monarchy, which seems to be working against its stated aims of promoting good governance anchored on democratic principles. Fed up with the system, the people of Eswatini took to the streets to push for democratic reforms. Typical of any dictatorial regime, the monarchy responded with brutality. Up to now, it is not clear what the position of SADC is on the matter. SADC has failed the people of Eswatini for far to long and it continues to fail to address systemic economic challenges bedeviling the sub continent, which inhibits it from taking its rightful place on the global economic stage.
So the verdict is out. SADC fits the bill of a toothless bulldog, which can only bark, and not bite. It can only take pride in delivering political freedom but has to take the flak for failing to achieve economic freedom.