Malawi’s leadership of the SADC is problematic
DURING the Southern African Development Community (SADC) 41st ordinary summit of heads of state and government hosted by Malawi in Lilongwe, the intergovernmental organisation unanimously condemned the elevation of Zionist-colonialist Israel to observer status by the AU.
Many countries in the SADC are in solidarity with the Palestinian cause because they know how painful colonialism and apartheid is.
The SADC region endured the most horrific forms of colonialism and apartheid before attaining their independence.
Many of these SADC countries had to fight protracted wars of liberation for them to be free.
Thousands of lives were lost during these struggles and many more incapacitated in order to free ourselves from the yoke of bondage. This is the same bondage that the Palestinian people are subjected to.
It is thus disgraceful that the current head of the SADC, Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera, has defiantly opted to go against the group’s decision. Not only does his insistence on establishing Malawi’s embassy in Jerusalem undermine the SADC’S resolve, but he does so at huge risk to the unity of the region.
Where was Chakwera when many of our countries in southern Africa were being butchered by the former colonial governments? Has Chakwera forgotten that the peace and freedom that we now enjoy did not come on a silver platter?
When he ascended to power in Malawi after winning elections there, on a largely protest vote against the former government, he immediately announced, wanting to please his white master, former US president Donald Trump, that he was going to open an embassy in Jerusalem.
Does Chakwera know that setting up an embassy in Jerusalem is not only a violation of UN resolutions but a defiance of it?
It is, therefore, unbecoming of a leader in the SADC block to plunge member states into unnecessary controversy. The SADC stance on such issues is well known to be that of compliance with UN positions.
What one sees in Chakwera and his party’s behaviour always remind us of the policies of Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda. He was Malawi’s late dictator who, at the time of liberation wars of independence in southern Africa, broke ranks with other leaders such as Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere and Dr Kenneth Kaunda and was busy dining with colonial governments in the region and had diplomatic relations with them.
He had diplomatic relations with apartheid South Africa, Rhodesia, and Portugal at a time when these governments were considered pariahs even by their parent governments in Europe.
All Banda wanted was to get kickbacks from these colonial governments which, in a way, worked for him in the form of his capital city of Lilongwe, which was built by the apartheid South African government as a thank you for selling out the rest of the SADC who were still fighting for their independence.
The danger with such kind of leaders is that they can even be used to destabilise the region. Remember what Banda ended up doing?
He was used by apartheid South Africa to give training and refuge to Renamo rebels who ended up killing thousands of people and terrorising the whole region.
This spirit of defying and not wanting to pull in the same direction with others is very much in the DNA of Chakwera and his party, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP).
This spirit of a “house n ***** ” mentality should not be portrayed by an African head of state, it’s shameful to say the least.
The SADC should never in the future allow compromised leaders like Chakwera to ascend to its leadership. Africa is tired of the General Mobutu Sese Seko of the former Zaire kind of leaders who rule reading from a script written by Zionist Israel and the US.
We deserve original and authentic leadership in order to be able to register any meaningful progress on the continent.
We urge the SADC to always keep Chakwera and his party in check, otherwise he will plunge the region into serious controversies and might end up splitting our vanguard organisation just like Kamuzu did in the past.