Opposition leaders back ED SADC chairmanship

OPPOSITION political parties have backed Zimbabwe’s takeover as chair of the 16-member Sadc bloc and anticipate that under President Mnangagwa’s leadership, the country will effectively steer the region’s development path, emphasising innovation and industrialisation as key factors for robust economic growth.

President Mnangagwa assumed the SADC chairmanship on Saturday during the 44th Heads of State and Government Summit held at the New Parliament Building in Mount Hampden on the outskirts of Harare.

This year’s Summit ran under the theme: “Promoting Innovation to unlock opportunities for sustained economic growth and development towards an Industrialised Sadc.”

Accepting the chairmanship, President Mnangagwa said the region must collectively harness and realise maximum value from its vast natural resources to enhance modernisation by embracing innovation, science, and technology to achieve a high quality of life for its citizens. As chairman of the bloc for the next year, President Mnangagwa is expected to steer the ship and set the tone for robust development, having already taken bold steps at home towards fostering technology-driven transformation.

Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) interim president, Professor Welshman Ncube, said while the chairmanship is a rotational position among Sadc states, Zimbabwe should use its elevated position to advance regional integration, which is one of the core values of the regional bloc.

“It’s important for Zimbabwe to use the chairmanship of the organisation to push for the things that are critical to the region and the critical things are; better regional integration to improve trade, issues to do with one-stop borders to facilitate trade, and free movement of people in the region,” said Prof Ncube.

He said Zimbabwe should also use its tenure to broaden cooperation with international bodies including the World Tourism Organisation, and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), among other international organisations.

Prof Ncube said it was up to President Mnangagwa as the SADC chairman to decide issues to be advanced under Zimbabwe’s leadership role.

In a separate interview, the leader of the opposition in Parliament and Citizens Coalition for Change senator, Mr Sengenzo Tshabangu, said Zimbabwe has taken a significant position in regional leadership and all citizens should be seen supporting President Mnangagwa as the new chair.

“This is a critical responsibility and role that Zimbabwe has taken in the region.

“It is a strategic position in Sadc and Zimbabwe will be the regional representative in engaging with some of the international bodies including the International Monetary Fund, and African Union among other bodies,” he said.

“This is not about a political party but Zimbabwe and this position has to be embraced by all Zimbabweans regardless of political affiliation,” said Sen Tshabangu.

He said Zimbabwe has shown resilience in tackling socio-economic challenges affecting the region and the bloc will be ably led in coming up with Afrocentric solutions to regional problems.

Sen Tshabangu said in line with the summit’s theme, there is a need to heighten innovations for accelerated regional industrialisation.

“We need to innovate more as a region. We are exporting a lot of raw materials resulting in African countries not deriving value from their resources.

“We need to polish our diamonds; we need to process our tobacco as opposed to sending it as a raw material. Hence the theme in which Zimbabwe will be chairing the Sadc is a wake-up call for the region to modernise our systems for the development of the bloc,” said Sen Tshabangu.

“While we are limited by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in trading in our ivory, why can’t we add value to these products and produce goods?

“We have stockpiles worth millions but we are not deriving value from them. So, we need to innovate on how we can derive value from these natural resources.”

CITES prevents countries from trading in ivory and Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana are among the countries affected by the ban on ivory trade.

National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) president Professor Lovemore Madhuku, weighed in saying for the coming 12 months, Zimbabwe is expected to guide the regional development agenda. He said Zimbabwe came up with the Sadc theme and it is expected that the country will pursue the region’s growth by advancing innovation for industrialisation.

“The most important thing is that it allows Zimbabwe to play a critical role in giving ideas that will lead to the development of the region at least for the coming 12 months.

“Sadc needs to grow and Zimbabwe as its chair should drive its growth. We expect Zimbabwe to drive regional growth through innovation and industrialisation. That is the theme that we have set for ourselves,” said Prof Madhuku.

“Sadc needs to move from exporting raw materials to leveraging on science and technology for development and this is what Zimbabwe is going to contribute to the region as its chair.”

MDC-T president Mr Douglas Mwonzora said it was important for the whole country to rally behind Zimbabwe as Sadc chair as the chairmanship is not for personal gain but for the country to advance the regional cause.

He said with Zimbabwe as the regional bloc’s chair, political parties can easily access Sadc and solve their issues internally.

-@nqotshili