The SADC Betrayal

Mmegi Editor | Wednesday January 25, 2017 11:44

From the days of the Frontline States where neighbours aided and abetted those fighting to overthrow colonialist forces in the region, SADC heads of state can certainly look back with pride. What they cannot do, however, is become stuck looking down memory lane, while neglecting the myriad of pressing crises the region faces going forward.  The events around the exit of Yayha Jammeh of Gambia, after his 22-year reign, are shining an unfavourable light on our part of the continent. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a sister organisation to SADC, successfully pressed a diplomatic and military interview to lever Jammeh out, after he flip-flopped on his acceptance of an electoral loss. SADC has its own Jammehs hiding in plain sight and proudly snubbing their noses at all critics, while hiding behind the coat tails of regional solidarity and post-liberation camaraderie.

One of these Jammehs, Robert Mugabe, has handsomely benefited from SADC’s inability to hold fellow member states to account for violations of democracy, human rights abuses and the denial of constitutional rights for citizens.

ECOWAS’ push against Jammeh was emboldened and led by its largest economic and military power, Nigeria, without which it is doubtful the dictator would have been removed. In SADC, South Africa, which dwarfs all other countries economically and militarily, has displayed remarkable foot-dragging to lead interventions, such as the spectacular dithering around Zimbabwe after Mugabe lost the 2008 presidential elections. Apartheid and other colonialists were a clear target and common enemy for the Frontline States to coalesce over. Poverty, trade, industrialisation, HIV/AIDS and other challenges are equally issues to unite over. However, SADC clearly has no peer review mechanisms or if it does, no single leader is willing to use them. The heads of summit has thus become an Old Boys Club where gratuitous back-patting and mutual affirmation are the order of the day.

The summit leaders cannot disagree or engage each other. The Frontline States mentality, still prevalent today, demands like-thinking and discourages introspection. This status quo is clear whenever mavericks such as Botswana break ranks continentally and the loudest criticism comes from fellow Southern Africans.

Besotted as some of them are with the past, our regional leaders would do well to remember that the fight against apartheid and colonialism was precisely for the freedom and equal standing of all citizens.

As it stands, SADC is viewed by citizens of the region as a monument to failure, a relic that once had glory after the Frontline States, but has since become as ineffectual as it has become irrelevant.

Today’s thought

“With proper governance, life will improve for all.” 

 - Benigno Aquino III