As Khama leaves SADC...
Bame Piet | Tuesday August 30, 2016 16:10
The chairmanship changeover at SADC is traditionally brief and marked by humour. The outgoing chair hands his successor the ceremonial gavel and block as well as the chairman’s badge, shortly after delivering his farewell address.
Last August, Zimbabwean leader, Robert Mugabe used his farewell address to drag his successor Khama down memory lane, recalling the outrage over Sir Seretse Khama’s marriage to Ruth Williams in 1948 and his own encounters with the late founding president.
Mugabe, three years younger than Seretse, was 24 when the late president married and his colourful, often humorous speech was punctuated by historical anecdotes and strong anti-imperialist narrative.
Today, Khama’s speech is expected to be less dramatic and, in keeping with the structure of his addresses, the outgoing chair will be sequenced, organised with a few light-hearted detours from the written speech.
His address, however, is eagerly awaited as Khama will give a review of his own performance as SADC chair and highlight his year in office to an audience eager to gauge his legacy.
Much hype and expectation surrounded Khama’s ascension to the chairmanship last August, as he took over the organisation his father was instrumental in establishing.
Khama found a region struggling with poverty and disease, development, integration and sound political governance, particularly the removal of dictatorships and growth of democracy.
“It is quite disheartening that there is negligible trade between and among African states. It is a sad fact that we are primarily suppliers of raw materials with very few industrialised nations among us. Equally important is the need to continue to scale up implementation of regional infrastructure, given that it is a key enabler to economic integration and development,” Khama said in his acceptance speech last year. But worse was to come.
Worst drought in 35 years
When he became chair, Khama was aware that at least 27.5 million people were in need of food relief after a failed 2014 cropping season, while about 40 percent of the region were living below the bread line.
The situation rapidly worsened with the 2015/16 season being called the worst in 35 years, leaving 40 million people in the region on the edge of starvation, with 18 million requiring immediate help.
The crisis came as the commodity dependent region saw economies falter as mineral prices across the spectrum declined, leaving governments with very little in the coffers to help their citizens against the drought.
By March, it was clear Khama would have to do something last done by a SADC chair in July 2002. He pushed regional assessments of the situation and by July, issued the region’s biggest humanitarian appeal to date.
The appeal is in full swing, with part of the P26 billion required, already secured and cereal imports ramping up to feed the millions hungry. Logistics have been hammered out and by all reports, supplies are flowing seamlessly through the region.
Poverty reduction
Khama was expected to home in on poverty reduction in the region, particularly as he is known to be passionate about the same challenge domestically. The extreme drought worsened the poverty situation in the region and by May, it was estimated that at least 40 percent of all SADC citizens were living in abject poverty.
Khama called an emergency workshop on food security, where it was noted that poverty eradication had become the overarching objective for the SADC regional integration agenda.
The workshop noted while the region had several strategic instruments to drive integration and alleviate poverty, such as the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan, the Dar-es-Salaam Declaration and Action Plans on Agriculture and Food Security, the main challenge was the slow pace of domestication and implementation.
Equally, there was insufficient and unsustainable financing and investment in agriculture, coupled with low agricultural production, productivity and competitiveness, low agricultural mechanisation, poor access to markets and weak disaster preparation.
While measures at addressing these challenges have begun, Khama efforts mean the troubles have been identified but future SADC chairs will take the baton and run towards implementation.
Troubled mountain kingdom
Much of Khama’s political efforts as SADC chair were targeted at resolving the long-running crisis in Lesotho.
Khama called an unprecedented two Double Troika’s to address the Lesotho Summit, which revolves around opposition unhappiness with security and political reforms and allegations that the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) is torturing state opponents with official impunity.
Many leading opposition legislators and principals have fled in fear to neighbouring South Africa, citing an alleged ongoing murderous rampage by the LDF and the government’s unwillingness to reign in the army.
After the first Double Troika in February, it was revealed that Khama saved Lesotho from suspension from SADC, intervening at the last minute over lunch to negotiate with Lesotho Prime Minister, Pakalitha Mosisili.
Opposition figures and commentators say as commendable as Khama’s efforts have been, they have been stymied by a deliberate strategy by Mosisili’s government to drag matters on and “wait out” the regional scrutiny.
By the second Double Troika in July, it appeared the “strategy” was working as SADC dropped certain demands and softened its position on others, despite Lesotho not providing concrete proof of the security and political reforms demanded.
One of the key demands from July – that the environment for exiled opposition leaders be improved to facilitate their return by August 31 – is set to fail as the leaders point to the lack of changes in the LDF.
Khama’s efforts on Lesotho have brought the crisis to the regional agenda, but his interventions appear to have been undermined by the “strategy”.
What government says
In a brief email on Khama’s departure for the SADC Summit, the Office of the President gave its take on his legacy during his tenure.
“During her one-year Chairmanship, Botswana has not only spearheaded regional efforts aimed at addressing the political and security challenges in Lesotho, but has among other things, convened three Ministerial workshops aimed at seeking durable solutions to the current challenges related to food insecurity and poverty alleviation; inadequate energy supply and water scarcity as well as illegal trade in wildlife.”
Khama magic
It remains to be seen whether Khama’s efforts were enough to earn him an enduring legacy in the region. Coming into the chair, he inherited a region filled with discontented citizens, grappling with poverty, opportunities, health, education, development and even the next meal.
He leaves behind largely the same situation, worsened by the extreme drought. However, through his efforts, he has set in motion faster implementation of strategies towards greater integration, industrialisation, poverty eradication, disaster preparedness and development.
The challenge is for future SADC chairs to continue demanding greater implementation of strategy by member states. Khama’s voice will continue echoing for another year as the outgoing chair sits in SADC’s highest decision-making troika for 12 months after handing over the chairmanship.
Over to you King Mswati III.
King Mswati
SADC should really reconsider its position otherwise it would be treated as a joke by people who believe in democracy. Why should this organisation allow itself to stoop this low by failing to speak against King Mswati and his hard line on dissenting voices? SADC should have taken a bold position that it will not share the chairmanship with a colleague who does not adhere to its principles. It is like a Christian organisation appointing a Muslim as their leader.
DRC
The Democratic Republic of Congo is the region’s biggest failure, perhaps for the reason that the country has suffered many years of civil wars and only joined the bloc a few years back. No individual has raised a voice against Joseph Kabila who has postponed elections several times to the chagrin of his own people. It is not yet clear if the presidential elections will be held in November as promised earlier. The outgoing chairman has not publicly called on his colleague to set the date for elections and not try to manipulate the country’s constitution to extend his stay in office. Meanwhile, SADC troops are in the DRC forests looking for rebels.
Angola
The last time Angola was a regular feature in the SADC agenda was during the country’s civil war led by UNITA’s rebel leader, Dr Jonas Savimbi who was killed in 2002. Very little is said or known about this country except that its President Edwardo dos Santos has been in power since the early 1980s, has a daughter who is counted among the world’s riches people, and that the President recently appointed her to a senior government position. Could there be a communication problem between the regional bloc and the country due to it being Portuguese-speaking? Angola and Mozambique are the only Portuguese speaking countries, but Mozambique is more visible and accessible.
Zimbabwe
It is unbelievable that Zimbabwe continues to be the region’s biggest failure despite knowing the root cause of this problem.
Zimbabwe is burning as it did 10 years ago when President Ian Khama was Vice President, unaware that one day he will be leading the regional bloc as its chairman. During his 12 months as chair, Khama has said very little about Zimbabwe. There is no hope either that the incoming chairman, King Mswati, will even bother to find a solution to this problem.
Zambia
The country recently went to the polls under an atmosphere that cannot be said to have been conducive to holding free and fair elections. The ruling party’s clampdown on the private media must have impressed the outgoing SADC chairman whose relationship with his country’s own private press is unimpressive. He must be wishing to invite the new Zambian President to his State House to congratulate him on his handling of private press.