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The Southern Times newspaper has reached an agreement with the Sadc Secretariat to be the regional bloc’s media partner for the forthcoming 34th summit of Heads of State and Government to be held next month in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
As part of the agreement, The Southern Times will publish a daily bulletin of the proceedings at the summit starting with the Council of Ministers’ Meeting and then the Heads of State and Government Meeting.
The daily bulletin will be available as an insert in The Herald newspaper in Zimbabwe and the New Era newspaper in Namibia. The Southern Times is a joint venture regional publication established by Namibia’s New Era and Zimbabwe’s Zimpapers.
The Sadc Secretariat noted that The Southern Times had rendered sterling services during the 30th Jubilee Summit in Windhoek Namibia in 2010.
“We look forward to The Southern Times covering the Summit and producing a high quality daily bulletin which speaks to aspirations of the Sadc region in progress,” said Sadc Executive Secretary Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax.
“We wish to thank you in advance for this noble proposal and express our sincere hope that we will continue to nurture our relationship for the greater good of the Sadc region,” Dr Tax said.
Highlights of the August summit will be the region’s desire to push its vision as an emerging economy with infrastructure that works coast-to-coast closer to reality.
The summit will be held under the theme “Sadc Strategy for Economic Transformation: Leveraging the Region’s Diverse Resources for Sustainable Economic and Social Development”.
As has become the norm at the annual summit, journalists who excelled in covering stories that promote regional integration will be honoured at the meeting.
The Sadc media awards were established by the Council of Ministers in 1996 to serve as part of ensuring a link, co-ordination and synchronisation between formal structures of Sadc governments, civil society, academia, labour and the media.
In pursuit of the promotion of regional integration and co-operation, the awards aim to recognise excellence in journalism in the areas of print, photo, television, radio as well as to encourage journalists in member states to cover issues pertaining to the region.
Students who excelled in the Sadc Secondary Schools Essay Competition will also be honoured at the summit. The essay competition was mooted to encourage youth participation in regional integration affairs.
Now in its 16th year, the Sadc Secondary Schools Essay Competition brings to the fore the talents of the young gifted writers in the regional bloc’s member states, their ability to express themselves, their thoughts and views.
The topic for this year’s essay is:
“Climate change is having diverse effects on socio-economic development in the region. What should the education sector do to mitigate the impact on the youth?”
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