adminwhich has, by far remained the most peaceful and stable, thanks to the leaderships’ ability to ring-fence common interests.
Sadc has remained the most progressive of the regions because it quickly identified that past wars in Angola, DRC and Mozambique, were all triggered by eccentric European leaders, seeking fortune in these countries, yet disguising themselves as the harbingers of democracy, peace, good governance and accountability.
Sadc comprises Angola, South Africa, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Sadc has remained largely successful because its rallying point has been independence, total emancipation and political cohesion, through homegrown solutions to problems. Once in a while the West has tried to infiltrate Sadc but the bloc has been able to quickly detect the cause of the problems and resolved the problem internally like the situation that prevailed in Zimbabwe, DRC and Madagascar.
West and North Africa has had the biggest share of problems due to their laxity to close out the United States of America and its European partners who have deliberately crafted political problems to enable them to infiltrate and milk the natural resources.
After creating war, US and its partners then come as messiahs, committed to rescuing the ordinary people, yet behind the scenes they plunder natural resources and ship them to their homes.
The leadership in Sadc should be credited for seeking homegrown solutions and for perpetually wadding off attempts by America, Britain and France to interfere and cause war. The best thing Sadc has done is give identity and credence to domestic values, politically, socially and economically. It has been able to share co-values across the borders of its member states and identify with the political history underpinned by liberation history.
One wonders why west and east Africa have been unable to unite around their history of slave trade, oppression and common interests such as regional trade. Always these regions have been found easy to penetrate by Western Europe and America and always their resources are being plundered, while war rages on. Only recently I bumped into Angolan minister of Foreign Affairs, Georges Chikoti, who said the region of Southern African Development Community enjoyed a climate of peace and stability, despite recording some ongoing political process in mainly Madagascar and DRC.
He, however, rightfully bragged that the problems in Sadc are just a drop in the ocean when compared to the upheavals in West, North and East Africa.
These other regions have become political jungles where any day a country can wake up at war with itself, at the instigation of Western powers.
Minister Chikoti noted that there are political processes underway in Madagascar, Zimbabwe, DR Congo and Malawi, which also experienced slight instability, but he assured that the situation in the region is good and of peace.
Recently, Ministerial Inter-State Committee of Defence and Security of Sadc met in Luanda, to analyse among other issues the stability in the region.
Sadc is said to have gone a step further at this meeting to discuss its standby military brigade, which is now almost ready to fight any disturbances in the region and is ready for call by African Union when need arises. If all regional groupings, were moving at the same pace with Sadc, Africa would be a much safer place to live in for the ordinary African that it is today.
The Angola meeting also discussed and adopted a strategy to combat piracy in the Indian Ocean, with emphasis on the Horn of Africa. — DayAfrica.com.
l Professor Mandhla Ndebele is a political scientist based in South Africa.
Online Reporter