Africa-Press – Lesotho. Development for Peace Education (DPE) led a delegation of Lesotho civil society organisations (CSOs) to attend a 2017 Southern African Development Community (SADC) Peoples Summit organized by Southern African People`s Network (SAPSN) that was held at Constitutional Hill, Johannesburg, South Africa from Wednesday the 16th to Friday the 18th August, 2017.
The delegation included members of organizations from the Lesotho Council of NGOs (LCN), Transformation Resource Centre (TRC), Maseru Region Transport Operators (MRTO), National Clothing and Textile and Workers Union (NACTWU), and Lesotho Young Christian Students (YCS).
According to information released by DPE, the theme for this year People’s Summit was, ‘People to People Solidarity: Rebuilding Hope and Resistance in the Region.
DPE says the theme is intended to rejuvenate the spirit of cooperation of member states to share one another’s challenges despite the fact that the regional body is failing to carry its mandate of promoting democracy and good governance.
“Some of the topics which were to be discussed under this theme included: ‘Democratic Gains under Threat in SADC-Towards Building Sustainable Solidarity on Hot-Spots’; ‘Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, Forthcoming Elections in Southern Africa’ ; Compliance with the SADC Principles Guidelines and National Regulations Zimbabwe and Swaziland, How to keep grassroots movements alive in a context of NGOism and Regional Tertiary Debates: this house believes that climate change is a hoax, etc.
“The purpose of People`s Summit is to mobilize non-state actors to raise voices from local communities in member states of SADC Region in order to inform decisions of Heads of States and Governments during SADC Official Summit.
“Amongst the issues which are intended to influence the SADC summit are the negative effects of the extractive industries (mines) to the communities living adjacent to them, migration issues affecting cross border issues between Lesotho and the Republic of South Africa and xenophobia in the larger context,” says DPE.
The organisation further states that the Lesotho civil society organisations called for the speedy implementation of the SADC Summit resolution that adopted the Phumaphi Commission of Enquiry recommendations and speed up the reforms process that they said, should be open and inclusive to all citizens.
In these delegation are the youth from different tertiary institutions who are members of YCS who will join the forum of their colleagues to discuss issues related to education in the region.
It is anticipated issues around access to free education, access to free sanitary towel for girl children and prevention of early child marriage will top the agenda of the students.
The Johannesburg summit was the 21st People’s Summit after Lesotho hosted it in 2006. The People’s Summit is held at the place where the SADC Summit of heads of government is to assemble. The summit had experienced challenges in countries like Zimbabwe and Swaziland where the regimes are hostile to the civil society organisations.
The People`s Summit in South Africa in 2017 culminated with the 2017 People`s Summit Communiqué which was given to a delegation that travelled from Johannesburg to Pretoria to handover the communities’ voices to the Heads of States and Governments.
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