At the opening of a heads of state summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Maputo, at which Mozambique took over the rotating presidency of SADC from Angola, Guebuza stressed the need to seek consensus to deal with tensions inside and between SADC member states.
Both in relation to the Malawi-Tanzania dispute and to the crisis in Madagascar, “we must continue to value dialogue as a mechanism to seek and build consensus”.
“It is on the basis of this consensus”, Guebuza continued, “that mutual trust between the parties flourishes, awakening the will to identify more the factors that unite them and can push them towards progress, than those which divide them and could lead them backwards”.
Out of consensus, “shared visions” would arise, he insisted.
The summit certainly provides an opportunity for the Malawian and Tanzanian Presidents, Joyce Banda and Jakaya Kikwete to discuss their border issue. As for Madagascar, SADC invited both the democratically elected President, Marc Ravalomanana, and the man who overthrew him in the 2009 coup, Andry Rajoelina, to Maputo.
Neither of them are attending the summit, but SADC hopes that the two men can continue the negotiations held in the Seychelles on 25 July and 8 August. The return of Ravalomanana to Madagascar is the only issue pending that could derail the agreed road map intended to lead the country to elections next year. SADC has called for the unconditional return of Ravalomanana, but Rajoelina has bluntly refused to allow his rival back.
A further SADC trouble spot is the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a mutiny in the Congolese armed forces in April led to the creation of a rebel movement, known as M-23, under the leadership of the warlord Bosco Ntaganga, known as “the Terminator”. Rwanda has been accused of backing the group, a charge that the Rwandan government denies.
“We are concerned at the prevailing situation in the eastern Congo”, said Guebuza, promising “to make our contribution so that peace and stability are restored in that part of this SADC member.
Guebuza announced that the key priority for the Mozambican Presidency of SADC will be the Development Corridors – the road and rail routes that fan out from the main SADC ports. He regarded the Corridors as “vehicles for regional integration”.
They would encourage the emergence of small and medium companies “thus generating more job opportunities for our citizens”, said Guebuza. “By facilitating the circulation of people and goods, we will be contributing to a better knowledge by our citizens of the geographical spaces that constitute SADC, and of the potential and opportunities opening in each of our countries”.
But peace and stability were vital factors for viable development corridors, he added. He therefore pledged to work closely, in his capacity as SADC chairperson, with the chair of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, “to accompany the prevention, mediation and solution of conflicts in our region”.
Guebuza also praised freedom of movement within SADC, “which would have been unthinkable some three decades ago”.
“We don’t often remember how tough the journey was to reach the liberation that created the conditions for this greater facility in the circulation of people and goods within SADC”, he said.
That freedom of movement is not yet complete. Two SADC members, Angola and the DRC, still demand entry visas from citizens of most other SADC countries.
Guebuza called for a SADC that would be a grouping of peoples, as well as of states. “Intensive contacts and interchange between the citizens of our countries are fundamental factors for the strengthening of mutual confidence”, he said.
Guebuza also welcomed the election of South Africa’s former Minister of Home Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as the new chairperson of the African Union Commission. SADC states had waged a vigorous campaign for Dlamini-Zuma, who defeated the incumbent, Jean Ping of Gabon at the AU summit in July.
“This electoral victory shows once again that SADC, always united and determined, overcomes the challenges facing it and achieves its dreams”, declared Guebuza.
Dlamini-Zuma is not only the first southern African, but also the first woman, to hold the top AU post. Thanking the SADC heads of state for their support, she told the summit “Africa will not attain its potential until women participate fully in the life and politics of the continent”.
She added that she wants to ensure “that future generations do not see us as a generation of lost opportunities”.
Post published in: Africa News