Africa-Press – Eswatini. The Southern African Development Community (SADC), African Union (AU), European Union (UN) and United Nations (UN) have been urged to recognise and endorse Sibaya as the country’s local pathway and a national platform for achieving collective governance and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This was said by Southern African Research Foundation for Economic Development (SARFED) Regional Coordinator George Choongwa.
Choongwa said like any successful country, national stability and growth was established through centralisation of commonality of the masses.
Through Eswatini’s traditional practices of Sibaya, the country is able to achieve both present and future modernity while preserving its cultural heritage.
Elaborating, the regional coordinator said the implications of endorsing Sibaya by both regional and international development institutions such as SADC, AU, EU, and the United Nations can be from the perspective of national socioeconomic and political stability, as well as regional and global perspective.
He said before escalating to national level, the role of SADC in endorsing Sibaya was critical as a regional mother body for sustainable governance.
“It should not only be associated with observing elections in a given country of the region as it has traditionally been seen, but to equally understand and endorse different governance systems that served to the best interest of its member state’s national socio-economic, and political affairs,” Choongwa stated.
He disclosed that countries like Eswatini have long since time can record been successfully governed under the philosophy of collectivism and self-determination, where people have always defined and determined their own destiny through systems like Sibaya.
Democracy
He said in other words, they decide their own democracy in their own space of values and norms of which today is endorsed by the United Nations Charter under the theme of collectivism using the term ‘we, the people.’ replicate the very foundation of democracy that the will of the people is the source of legitimacy of sovereign states and therefore of the United Nations as a whole.
Choongwa said the absence or silence of these organisations (SADC, AU, EU, and UN) in Eswatini’s governance, political and socio-economic transition through Sibaya could contribute to its slowness in diagnostic and interventions during the time of national security crisis like what happened during the 2021 civil unrest.
He said, on the other hand, if SADC for example ensured its visibility in critical events like Sibaya, it would have almost immediate solutions and interventions in the country’s socio-political affairs where necessary.
Development
“Therefore, all development institutions where Eswatini is a member state or has a stake such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU), European (UN) and the United Nations (UN) should recognise and endorse Sibaya as the country’s local pathway as national platform for achieving collective governance and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” Choongwa stated.
Source: observer
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