Scant detail on Sadc industrial programme
THE annual Southern African Development Community (Sadc) summit ended in Victoria Falls last night, with host president Robert Mugabe in the saddle for the next 12 months.
Mr Mugabe was confirmed as chair of the 15-nation regional group at the weekend with no reference to the fact that at 90 he is Africa’s oldest head of state.
There were no political fireworks at the summit and no major resolutions. Mr Mugabe’s only outspoken critic among Sadc leaders, President Ian Khama of neighbouring Botswana, was elected deputy chairman.
Mr Khama will take over from Mr Mugabe next year at the next summit in Gaborone. The Sadc secretariat is located in Botswana’s capital city.
Mr Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe ever since independence from Britain in 1980, struck a measured and conciliatory tone during his speech to the summit on Sunday, raising hopes that he would not clash with Mr Khama during their 12-month tandem.
The regional leaders — 10 of them presidents, including SA’s Jacob Zuma — received reports and voted on resolutions with little detail on how their programmes would be implemented.
It emerged at the weekend that 60% of Sadc programmes are funded by foreign donors— a state of affairs which Mr Mugabe, in his acceptance speech, said compromised the integrity and independence of the regional bloc.
Mr Mugabe’s push for the region to begin the long road to economic empowerment received a cautious nod from leaders, who agreed that industrialisation should be at the centre of the region’s economic agenda.
“On the theme, summit directed that industrialisation should take centre stage in Sadc’s regional integration agenda. To this end, summit mandated the Ministerial Task Force on Regional Economic Integration to develop a strategy and roadmap for industrialisation in the region”, a part of the final Sadc communiqué read.
Early yesterday, Zimbabwe riot police beat and arrested opposition activists and a journalist during a rally in the capital Harare, witnesses said.
Police used batons to break up a demonstration by youth from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) demanding that Mr Mugabe deliver on his pre-election promise to create 2-million jobs. “The newly appointed Sadc chairperson, Robert Mugabe, crushed jobless youth in Harare today,” Clifford Hlatshwayo, spokesman for the MDC youth wing told AFP. Police were not immediately available to comment.
A reporter from the privately owned Zimbabwe Mail said her colleague, photojournalist Angela Jimu, was beaten by police at the rally and had two of her cameras and a cellphone confiscated.
“We were covering the demonstration by MDC youths when police started beating the protesters,” the reporter said. “When the police realised that Angela was taking pictures, they beat her with batons … They took her to Central Police Station together with several others. I could see she was in pain.”
Zimbabwe Mail editor Constantine Chimakure later confirmed Ms Jimu was arrested.
Human rights groups last week urged the Sadc meeting to address abuses and uphold individual freedoms in their countries. With AFP