Africa-Press – Botswana. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) completes, this Thursday, 31 years of formal existence, but 43 of struggle for political emancipation, economic freedom and regional integration.
The struggle of the peoples and leaders of the region with the “ status quo” that generated their fighting “instinct” dates back to the times prior to the formalization of SADC in its current format, which is why it is now in its 43rd ordinary session, despite the annuality of its summit meetings .
Currently, SADC has Angola, South Africa, Botswana, Comoros, eSwatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Namibia, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe as member states.
It is a space of 340 million inhabitants, spread over 16 countries, between coastal and landlocked, between republican democracies and monarchies, where thousands of African national languages coexist with European languages.
In the most recent official statistics, the 16 countries total close to 10 million square kilometers in area and US$1.52 trillion in annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or US$4,720 per capita.
Conceived to promote and implement the regional integration of the southern part of the African continent, the organization resulted from the transformation of the previous Coordination Conference for the Development of Southern Africa (SADCC), which had been in force since 1980.
SADCC was established through the Lusaka Declaration, signed on April 1, 1980, at the instigation of the then group of Frontline Countries (PLF), an informal coalition of seven countries in the region that fought for the end of the apartheid regime. and white minority in South Africa.
Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe were the seven members of the group, launched in the 1960s, which was then joined by Swaziland (today eSwatini) and Malawi to found SADCC with the main mission of combating economic hegemony of South Africa towards the “equal integration” of the region.
Twelve years later and after achieving Namibia’s independence, the assessment of the path taken by SADCC until then dictated its conversion into SADC as a new intergovernmental platform for cooperation in the socio-economic, political and security domains.
The transformation took place during a Summit of Heads of State or Government of the SADCC, held in the Namibian capital, on 17 August 1992, with the signing of the Windhoek Declaration and the SADC Treaty.
At the time, the decision was justified by the “modesty” of the progress made so far in reducing the region’s economic dependence and in its economic integration as the main objectives of the creation of SADCC.
Without neglecting some of the successes achieved in SADCC’s 12 years of experience, which made it possible to consolidate regional solidarity and identity, it was concluded that the organization did not mobilize the maximum of its own resources for development.
This without neglecting, however, that its operationalization took place in a period particularly marked by serious national economic problems, armed conflicts, hostile international environment and massive destabilization and military aggression by the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
In the new vision, a Southern Africa concerned with peace and development was projected and which should find a more lasting base to combine political solidarity and cooperation, to guarantee mutual peace and security in the region and to release resources from the effort military for productive development activities.
At the same time, it was seen that such a desideratum demanded a greater political commitment, effective institutions and appropriate mechanisms only practicable through a union of forces with legal relevance.
The aim was to create synergies capable of making the region’s countries stronger, politically and economically, and making the regional bloc a serious player in international relations.
In other words, it was imperative to move from a merely coordinating and voluntary association, such as SADCC, without effective deliberative power, to a legally binding institution, whose decisions were binding on its members.
That is, the consensus prevailed that, regardless of the approach, no country in Southern Africa could achieve the objectives alone, in a region with a strong past of armed conflicts and militarization associated with the struggle for political liberation and against the regime of racial segregation, aggression and destabilization.
This recognized that the creation of a regional identity and a sense of common destiny among the countries and peoples of Southern Africa was SADCC’s greatest contribution to regional development.
Entity in constant growth
The increase in the level of acceptance and recognition has been a constant in the organization’s path, both from the PLF group itself, as its forerunner arm in the struggle for political liberation, and from SADCC in regional cooperation at all levels.
Despite its informal nature, the PLF group was formally recognized in April 1975 as an organ of the Assembly of Heads of State of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), at the time comprising four countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Tanzania and Zambia). ).
It was dissolved in 1994 after Nelson Mandela came to power as President of South Africa, following the first democratic and multi-racial elections in the country, and as a corollary to Namibia’s rise to independence four years earlier.
But before its extinction, the arrival of independent Namibia had already expanded the list of founding countries of the new organization that was the heir of SADCC.
Indeed, the Treaty that created SADC and the Declaration that proclaimed its objectives were adopted and signed by the nine founding countries of SADCC and by the new Namibia, totaling 10 signatory States.
Since then, the number of Member States has progressively grown to reach the current 16, after the accession of six new members, starting with South Africa in 1994 and the DRC in 1997.
This expansion was also reflected in the increase in the number of languages adopted as the organization’s official and working languages, going from the two initially enshrined in the founding act to the current four.
The Treaty creating SADC initially established English and Portuguese as the official languages of the organization, before adding French and Swahili, the latter being a lingua franca of the Great Lakes region and parts of southern and eastern Africa.
The organization is on its way to admitting its 17th member state when Burundi’s membership is approved, whose request is under study to verify its compliance with the requirements of what is considered one of the most stable and attractive regional economic communities in Africa.
For the time being, the Union of the Comoros, readmitted in 2017, is the newest Member State and one of the smallest countries in the region with just over 850,000 inhabitants in an area of 2,235 square kilometers.
It has, however, one of the highest population densities in the region, estimated at almost 460 inhabitants per square kilometer, surpassed only by Mauritius, with 641 people per square kilometer, as well as one of the best GDP per capita (USD 1,485) of a total of USD 1.24 billion annually.
Other subsequent accessions
Mauritius joined in 1995, and Madagascar in 2005, before being readmitted in 2014 after its 2009 suspension following a coup d’état, while Seychelles, a member since 1997, suspended in 2004, was reinstated in the regional block, in 2008.
With just over 98,000 inhabitants and less than 500 square kilometers of surface, Seychelles is the smallest country in the Community but one of the best economic performers in the region and the African continent, ahead of the giant South Africa.
It currently occupies second place in the African ranking (72nd in the world) of human development led by Mauritius (63rd in the world) with South Africa, with 60 million inhabitants, ranked seventh (109th in the world) and Botswana in the eighth (117th) world cup.
The GDP of the Seychelles is around USD 1.60 billion per year and around USD 17 thousand per capita, against more than USD 400 billion per year in South Africa (USD 6,700 per capita) and almost USD 13 billion Mauritian dollars (USD9,900 per capita).
At the opposite extreme, the DRC is the largest and most populous country in the region with an area of 2.344 million square kilometers, more than 100 million inhabitants and an annual GDP of around USD 60 billion or USD 600 per capita.
Angola is the second largest country in the region, totaling 1.246 million square kilometers inhabited by just over 36 million inhabitants with an annual GDP of over US$100 billion and around US$3,000 per capita, according to data from the Nations Nations and the World Bank (WB).
Angola’s contribution to building community organization also extends to the writing of the current SADC Anthem, the lyrics of which, approved on February 15, 2002, in Zanzibar (Tanzania), were authored by the Angolan diplomat Manuel Gomes dos Santos.
The melody, based on the English lyrics, was prepared and recorded in Johannesburg, in July 2004, with the participation of composers from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The anthem, with lyrics in Portuguese appropriate to the official melody, was recorded on Rádio Moçambique, in Maputo, on November 4, 2005, with the participation of Mozambican musicians and the National School of Music.
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