Harare SADC Summit Sees Highest Presidential Turnout In A Decade
Despite controversies, including the jailing of opposition activists and pressure to relocate the 44th Ordinary SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government from Harare, Zimbabwe achieved a significant milestone by recording the highest level of presidential attendance in the past decade at the regional event on Saturday, August 17.
According to The Herald, out of 16 SADC Member States, only three Heads of State did not attend the 44th Summit – Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, Comoros’ President Azali Assoumani and Mauritius’ Prithvirajsing Roopun.
Hichilema chaired the Troika Summit of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Affairs on Friday via video link from Lusaka.
Six Heads of State were absent from the Summit held in Botswana in 2015, and five did not attend the following year’s gathering in the Kingdom of Eswatini. In 2017, as many as seven leaders were missing from the summit in South Africa.
In 2018, six leaders skipped the Summit in Namibia, while four were absent from the 2019 Summit in Tanzania. The 2020 gathering in Mozambique saw four leaders missing, a number that increased to six for the 2021 Summit in Malawi.
In 2022, five Presidents did not attend the Summit in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and four skipped the event in Angola last year.
As reported by News24, the least-attended summit occurred in South Africa in 2017, where only nine out of 16 heads of state and government were present.
In the lead-up to the Summit, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were embroiled in a trade dispute over imports, prompting Lusaka to close its borders.
Surprisingly, SADC removed the political and security situation in Eswatini from the agenda of the Troika Organ on Politics, Defence, and Security Cooperation.
SADC leaders acknowledged “positive progress regarding the political and security situation in the Kingdom of Eswatini,” as presented by King Mswati III.
King Mswati III expressed his disinterest in the discussions surrounding his kingdom as early as January 2023 when he sent Prime Minister Cleopas Sipho Dlamini to represent him at the SADC extraordinary summit in Windhoek, Namibia—following the killing of human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko.
To date, no one has been arrested for the crime, which civil society attributes to the Eswatini government.
The Summit also commended the DRC, Eswatini, Madagascar, South Africa, and Zimbabwe for successfully conducting peaceful elections.
This comes despite the SADC Election Observer Mission’s conclusion that the general elections held in Zimbabwe on August 23, 2023, did not meet regional standards for democratic elections.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has assumed the role of SADC chairman in this annual, rotational position, succeeding Angola’s President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço.
Next year, Mnangagwa is set to hand over the chairmanship to Madagascar’s Andry Rajoelina.
Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan has taken charge of the Organ on Politics, Defence, and Security Cooperation, succeeding Hichilema.
Meanwhile, Malawi has joined the troika as a new member, while Zambia remains as the outgoing chair.
More: Pindula News
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