adminTHE forthcoming SADC 34th SADC summit of Heads of States and Government in Victoria Falls provides a window of opportunities for the regional grouping to send signals to the international community of its intentions to remain sovereign and independent in all its undertakings.
Muchadura Dube
Sometime last week, American president, Barack Obama, hosted some African leaders where he promised aid to the continent. Obama lectured these supposedly truant African leaders on the usual subject of human rights.
In Obama’s mind, it is only Africans who are the violators of people’s rights. It boggles the mind that the man who is African himself has abandoned Africa, his father’s land of origin.
Throughout his reign which ends after his current term of office, Obama has not undertaken anything tangible for Africa save for his countless lip-service gestures.
It is deplorable that African leaders have lost hope in indigenous solutions which are tailor made to suit local conditions but rather would opt for foreign ideas so long as they enjoy the pleasantries of being hosted in any country outside Africa. Surely, it’s highly long overdue for African leaders to be their own men/women for the continent to prosper.
The danger is that if the continent’s leadership continues to pursue this perilous path of playing second fiddle to foreigners, the future of this promising economic block, SADC, looks bleak.
The regional leadership should come of age, beginning at the SADC summit in Victoria Falls to stand firm in its pursuit of the region’s economic interests. It’s only economic liberation rooted in technology transfer and unequivocal resource ownership by the indigenes, which can transform the livelihood of the region’s multitudes who are now impatient of being peripheral figures in their lands of birth. The onus is on the leadership who were trusted with the unenviable task of engineering economic revival of their respective member states.
That Africa has always been considered the source of raw materials by the industrialized country is not in doubt. What then startles is the continued presence of the yesteryear looters amidst us, willy-nilly playing their deceitful power games of divide and rule.
The former coloniser uses the same old game of sponsoring individuals, enriching them at the expense of the common good. The respective leader/s will be pampered with gifts, guess what? Most African leaders have a tendency to succumb to the same machinations.
Africa needs leaders of the calibre of Kwame Khurumah, Robert Mugabe, Samora Machel and Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, luminaries who were and are still prepared in the case of President Mugabe to sacrifice self for the majority populace in their respective countries.
Having leaders who are paper tigers can only be an abomination to this great regional block and ultimately the continent. This writer will argue that the regional block, SADC, has an example to emulate in as far as asserting a people’s right to their natural resources is concerned, Zimbabwe is indeed an epitome of excellence as it has managed to restore its people’s dignity by redistributing its natural resources through its acclaimed ownership schemes.
The revolution in Zimbabwe saw the light of the day when the government responded to the people’s demands for land by resettling them orderly, in the process empowering millions of the country’s population. An economy which was previously driven by a few whites and their black cronies has transformed into any economy for all as a result of land reform.
The people of SADC need to be their own masters, to avoid a scenario where their livelihoods are remotely controlled from elsewhere. True independence dictates that the people’s economic emancipation has to originate amongst them hence the sense of ownership will prevail.
The above assertions about Zimbabwe naturally coerce this writer to comment on undignified comments only fit for the gutter which were regrettably made by one Simba Makoni, an opposition leader with hardly any political support from Zimbabweans. Makoni postures as the biblical Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, with all solutions for the nation.
In Makoni’s perverted thinking, Zimbabwe is set to benefit nothing from hosting the 34th SADC summit of Heads of States and Government in the resort town of Victoria Falls.
For a moment I thought Simba Makoni had lost his senses. Having been the executive secretary of SADC, he would have simply understood the benefits that accrue to a host nation economically. Makoni desperately attempts to explain the benefits that member states derive by virtue of being members and at the same time decrying Zimbabwe for being afforded the opportunity to host.
Makoni’s desperation to enter the corridors of power is now beyond redemption. Makoni believes that it is only Zimbabweans who can extricate themselves out of the economic challenges which are currently facing the nation.
While it is generally true that Zimbabwe will have to find economic solutions for the myriad of economic problems confronting them, it will be interesting if Makoni will explain to the whole nation what role the Americans, whom am told are amongst a host of his paymasters, will have to play in the revival of Zimbabwe’s economic fortunes given the recent admission by the American president Barack Obama that indeed the country was under sanctions.
Obama admitted to the existence of the punitive sanctions in an interview by Takunda Chingonzo, a young entrepreneur and student at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) which was watched live by the whole world. Zimbabweans are not that stupid Simba.
Whilst we have been our own liberators, you and your ilk should lobby your Western regime change allies to remove these devilish sanctions which Zimbabweans never deserved. Makoni should just shut up if he has nothing to contribute to the country’s developmental thrust.
Yes, SADC has the natural resources leverage to influence the world order. What is needed is for the leaders to develop a common agenda which will benefit the current generation and posterity. In unison, SADC is a giant waiting for its place in the global arena.
Muchadura Dube is a Nyanga based farmer and political analyst.
Online Reporter