Chronicle Editor
Dr Obert Moses Mpofu
ZIMBABWE’S assumption of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) chairmanship through President Mnangagwa presents the perfect opportunity for the country to positively influence the region.
President Mnangagwa’s promising one-year term of office began yesterday, Saturday 17 August, 2024 and it is bound to be a term that will positively influence the regional bloc.
There is so much for our esteemed President to impart on the region and so little time, but that is not an issue at all as President Mnangagwa is a dedicated and hard-working leader who never shies away from any task, no matter how daunting.
The speed with which he has turned around Zimbabwe’s economic fortunes is a testament to this and there can be no doubt that the region will benefit immensely from his wealth of experience.
President Mnangagwa is perhaps one of the very few remaining nationalists trained in the art of nation building and is a champion of Pan-Africanism as well as the region’s aspirations.
There can therefore be no doubt as to his ability to deliver. His prowess is unquestionable.
The SADC region now has the privilege and opportunity to benefit from this. What we now call SADC has evolved from over the decades from the Frontline States to SADCC and to what it is now, but its true aims of ensuring that there is total emancipation and economic success among its Member States has never changed.
SADC has not faltered from its original intentions and still holds those in high esteem. The Frontline States of old, still resonate with the SADC of today. The goal is still to create a developed community. Zimbabwe being one of the proponents and founding members of the entity which we have come to know as SADC today, has been presented with yet another opportunity to demonstrate its leadership capabilities within the region.
Zimbabwe has a wealth of experience in addressing crises at the regional, continental as well as the international arena. Most importantly, Zimbabwe is well-capacitated in terms of building resilience within the region, owing to how we have withstood the barrage of sanctions that have been weaponised by the West against us.
Such a wealth of experience can be useful to the region at large, as our region has come under siege from our detractors. The height of the efforts fashioned against us was well-displayed during our August 2023 elections in which the colossal Zanu-PF party and President Mnangagwa emerged victorious, but our detractors made concerted efforts towards tainting this well-deserved victory.
With several elections slated in several countries within SADC this year, it is important that our SADC Member States glean some key lessons from Zimbabwe’s experience. It is thus befitting that President Mnangagwa is at the helm of SADC and will provide some key lessons to our Member States so that they do not fall victim to the machinations of our detractors.
Most importantly, it is important that the SADC Member States reaffirm their commitment to each other and guard against infiltration by the enemy. A divided people can never achieve any meaningful success.
We are each other’s keeper, and we should thus always act accordingly and act in the best interests of each other. For the past two decades, Zimbabwe has endured quite a lot under the weight of the illegal sanctions imposed on us by the West. We have emerged victorious and have surpassed all expectations. We are even surprised by our own progress as we are coming from a very difficult time in our nation’s history.
The illegal sanctions were bent on obliterating us. We, however, have managed to sum up great courage and through a tenacity peculiar to Zimbabweans, are emerging out of the woods and building our great nation, “brick by brick and stone upon stone”, while leaving no one and no place behind.
This is perhaps a blueprint that should be forwarded to and adopted by our fellow SADC Member States as it is only us who are capable of building our own nations by ourselves. SADC is perhaps the most resources endowed region in the world, so there is no reason why we should not be able to look within ourselves and develop our individual nations using our very own resources as a collective.
SADC designating 25 October of each year as an Anti-Sanctions Day demonstrates a great sense of solidarity that is both selfless and commendable.
It is such acts that strengthen our region and will ensure that we achieve all our goals. The colonial borders drawn up in Berlin by our former oppressors should not confine us and it is up to us as a region to start making concerted efforts to reduce the impact of these borders created by those ignorant of our ways.
Our people should be able to move freely and work wherever they choose within the region. The idea of creating a single market that is practical and has tangible benefits for our people can be easily attained. This is mainly because within SADC, there is a lot that ties us than that which divides us.
Our people are one and they share a common history of struggle. None of us would have achieved independence when we did if we had not come together as one to bury the scourge of colonialism. There should therefore, be no reason why we should not share a common future of prosperity. As President Mnangagwa begins his term of office as the SADC chairman, a new era beckons for the region.
The region will undoubtedly have a first-hand experience of President Mnangagwa’s leadership capabilities. In President Mnangagwa, we are indeed ably-led.
President Mnangagwa has over the past few years successfully championed Zimbabwe’s cause and has restored our great nation to its former glory. He is set to do equally the same with SADC now that he is at the helm of this most important regional Bloc.
We as Zimbabweans should rally behind the new SADC chairman and give him all the support he needs to execute his duties within the region. Success lies yonder comrades.
ν Dr Obert Moses Mpofu is an academic and the Secretary-General of Zanu-PF. He writes in his own capacity.
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