Beneficiation, the only effective route for SADC

Muchadura Dube
SOUTHERN African Development Community (SADC) holds its traditional annual Heads of State and Government Summit in Zimbabwe’s premier tourist resort town, Victoria Falls, with a plethora of issues ranging from political to economic which need to be addressed in order to enhance the standard of living of its ordinary citizens.
The primary purpose of such a grand gathering is to map ways and means to ensure the populace ekes out a decent living by benefitting from the God-given resources which are in abundance in the region.

The leadership has the onerous responsibility to ensure that it is the respective countries’ citizens who benefit from their natural resources exploitation.

Africa’s detractors, especially the gluttonous West, consider Africa their looting backyard where resources to anchor their economy are found. Just refreshing some of your memories, it is a historical fact that Europe owes its economic prosperity to Africa’s resources.

Given this atrocious history at the hands of these diabolical erstwhile oppressors, there is need for vigilance by the leadership as they deliberate on the future of the region.

Now that political independence is a reality, only economic liberty will guarantee genuine autonomy.
This can only be achieved if the region ensures that the abundant resources which it is endowed with are exploited locally. Instead of adding value to these products elsewhere, the time is ripe for the region to acquire and develop technology which will enhance the value of these natural resources in their respective countries.

The ever-hyped-about phenomenon of unemployment in the SADC region can only be addressed if beneficiation has been undertaken locally, in the process creating employment and wealth for the people.

The leadership has to see through the usual and calculated Western hypocrisy which is meant to save their citizens’ interest.
The West has no favours for Africans; they simply serve the interest of their countries of origin.

It can only puzzle the mind if the leadership of the region fails to empower their citizens by judiciously exploiting natural resources for their benefit.

As much as globalisation is real, it now dictates behavioural trends across the world. It must never be allowed to swallow the sovereignty of states and their territorial integrity.

The SADC region is unique in that most of the countries got their independence after protracted liberation struggles where precious human life was lost. It is therefore natural to jealously guard their nationhood.

The citizens of this region should benefit from these abundant natural resources.
A cursory glance will reveal that Zimbabwe is endowed with diamonds, so is Botswana, which is on its western side.

Recently Mozambique discovered the coveted gas which Europeans crave for so much that the resource even made the rarely seen Japanese Prime Minister travel all the way to the African continent to initiate a deal for this commodity.

The Angolans are rebuilding their country with a thriving multi-billion-dollar economy given the abundant diamonds which are yet to be exploited.

South Africa, the industrial hub of the region and indeed Africa, is a country endowed with a portfolio of mineral resources which if shared equally will certainly eliminate the poverty amongst the black majority.

The recent strikes in that country epitomised by the Marikana debacle are a testimony of a frustrated workforce which has grown impatient with labour regimes that exploit the owners of the resources in the name of capitalism.

These are just but a few examples amidst plenty of unique yet vital resource base that is found in the SADC region.
If only these resources could be exploited to benefit Africans who are the owners! It is high time the SADC leaders empowered their citizens using these resources which our forebears bequeathed to the current generation.

Fortunately for SADC, President Mugabe, the iconic statesman, will lead the giant bloc as he takes over from the Malawian President Peter Mutharika.

President Mugabe understands the politics of treachery by the former colonial powers who wish to have Africa as the source of their raw materials, through their financial institutions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, former colonial powers prescribe economic solutions which are detrimental to the total growth of African economies.

As has become the norm in their advice to African countries, they discourage the presence of societal protection nets which cater for the people and the vulnerable yet in their countries the same people provide such facilities.

To them, Africans are an inferior species.
Did anyone notice the frantic efforts which the IMF made when the Greek economy was on fire? If that had happened to an African country, it could perhaps have been termed a case of bad governance.

With President Mugabe at the helm, the regional bloc will be in capable hands which can steer it to lofty heights.
Africa needs to add value to its minerals and agricultural produce for it to compete on an equal footing with the whole world.

It is beneficiation of our resources which can catapult the region and Africa to the next level of economic development.
The continued siphoning of the region and the continent’s resources in their raw state is retrogressive and an affront to the economic aspirations of the populace.

This writer noted with concern some articles by those hostile to Zimbabwe’s hosting of the SADC summit and the passing on of the leadership to President Mugabe.

In their dreams and hallucinations, President Mugabe is supposed to use his reign as the SADC chairman to settle scores with those inimical to Zimbabwe’s interest.

Surely, only the myopic can stoop so low to think that Zimbabwe will use its chairmanship to advance its personal interests.
President Mugabe is an illustrious son of the soil, a distinguished statesman whose love for the poor and downtrodden is unquestionable.

Zimbabwe will pursue regional matters to their logical conclusion.
Any competent analyst will naturally gravitate to issues of economic importance, mainly aligning of trade protocols so as to remove any barriers to enable mobility of goods and services in the SADC region.

Since Zimbabwe has already begun the journey to true independence through empowering of its citizens, the SADC region is indeed poised for real economic growth.

Muchadura Dube is a Nyanga-based farmer and political analyst.