Gaborone – South African President Jacob Zuma on Monday handed over the chair of the Southern African Development Community’s Organ on Politics, Defence, and Security Cooperation to Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi at SADC’s annual summit in Gaborone, Botswana.
Zuma called for the full implementation of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the region. DRC is a SADC member.
He also thanked the other SADC member states which had contributed towards the efforts to bring peace to Lesotho, another SADC member state, which South Africa had led.
And Zuma urged continued support for “the positive developments” in Madagascar, another SADC member state, since 2013.
He said SADC should continue to support the processes of national reconciliation, constitutional reform and the consolidation of democracy in the Indian Ocean island state.
Madagascar held its first elections in 2013 since the elected President Marc Ravalomanana, was toppled in a military coup in 2009. Hery Rajaonarimampiana was elected as president but the country’s politics remain unstable. Parliament recently impeached the new president though the constitutional court overruled it.
“As a region, we call upon the Government and people of Madagascar to ensure that they safeguard the positive gains they have made, by fully supporting the process of nation-building and the implementation of the SADC Roadmap,” Zuma said.
Zuma said he was pleased that SADC member states continued to be united in confronting emerging peace and security threats in the region.
“I am pleased to report that we have developed a comprehensive Counter-Terrorism Strategy, to ensure our preparedness in confronting these threats facing the continent and the world, today,” he told the summit.
“Similarly we are addressing other threats to our regional stability such as the risks of natural disasters, poverty and underdevelopment. As a region we have committed ourselves to ensuring that our regional early warning system is improved to ensure that it provides effective and efficient alerts to potential areas of insecurity and instability’’ he added.
He also called for continuing support for member states which still needed it because of continued pockets of instability and pledged South Africa’s support to them.
Zuma also praised the continued growth and deepening of democracy in the SADC region as demonstrated by six peaceful elections and increased participation of citizens in the choice of their governments and leaders.
“During our tenure as the Chair of the Organ, we led six SADC Electoral Observer Missions to the Republics of Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Mauritius, Zambia and to the Kingdom of Lesotho,” Zuma said.
He congratulated Filipe Nyusi of Mozambiaue, Ian Khama of Botswana, Hage Geingob of Namibia, Aneerood Jugnauth of Mauritius, Edgar Lungu of Zambia and Pakalitha Mosisili of Lesotho for their re-elections.
“I am pleased to note that following a comprehensive and inclusive consultative process the Revised SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections have been adopted by the Summit,’’ Zuma said.
Through this important instrument, SADC would continue to build on its institutional knowledge of election observation and strengthen good governance in our region.
Zuma also urged member states to support the first continental peacekeeping field training exercise, AMANI AFRICA II, to operationalise the African Standby Force, which will be run by SADC and hosted by South Africa in October and November this year.
The exercise would contribute towards the strengthening of Africa’s deployment of peace support operations, he said.
ANA