Wednesday, August 17, 2005

[Africa] SADC marks 25 years, urges action on poverty

From Reuters South Africa

By Alistair Thomson

GABORONE (Reuters) - The Southern African Development Community (SADC) marked its 25th birthday on Wednesday with a call for more action and not just words to tackle chronic problems like poverty and drought.

SADC has adopted a string of agreements on subjects ranging from fighting crime to protecting the environment and plans to create a regional monetary union by 2020, but critics say little action has followed the promises.

Crisis-hit Zimbabwe, which analysts say marks one of the toughest challenges for the regional grouping, remains off the agenda at the two-day summit in Botswana's capital Gaborone.

"A number of protocols have been signed, ratified and come into force but are gathering dust on our shelves," Botswana President Festus Mogae, who assumed the revolving chair of SADC, said in a prepared speech.

"We need to strengthen and revitalise SADC into a strong organisation that can be an instrument of decisively fighting poverty, unemployment and insecurity," he said.

The SADC was first formed in 1980 with nine members in a bid to help newly independent Zimbabwe and nearby countries reduce their economic dependence on apartheid South Africa.

Today democratic South Africa is the economic powerhouse of an organisation grouping 13 countries and numbering more than 200 million people in a region where political stability has largely replaced the armed conflict of the past.

Madagascar is set to be accepted as its 14th member at the summit.

But progress promoting trade between member states to raise economic growth and create jobs has been slow.

SADC's economic growth rate of 4.1 percent in 2004 was an improvement on the previous year's 3.2 percent but falls far short of the expansion needed to tackle sky-high unemployment and the grinding poverty of the vast majority of its citizens.

"SADC ... needs to investigate the root causes of under development and find concrete solutions," said outgoing chairman Navin Ramgoolam, prime minister of Mauritius.

DROUGHT, ZIMBABWE CAST SHADOW

One of the most urgent items on the agenda is tackling chronic drought that this year threatens to leave 10 million people across southern Africa short of food.

"In many of our countries, including my own country Botswana, the frequency of drought far surpasses years of good rainfall," Mogae said.

"This is a harsh reality we have to collectively confront in a decisive and systematic manner. Otherwise we shall be caught in a never-ending cycle."

Analysts say another cloud casting a shadow over the summit is political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe -- though officials say it will not be discussed at the meeting.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe sat at Wednesday's opening ceremony between Mogae and South African President Thabo Mbeki, whose countries bear much of the burden of an influx of Zimbabweans fleeing economic crisis in their homeland.

Mugabe, accused by Zimbabwe's opposition and western countries of rigging elections and political repression, enjoys warmer relations with his southern African counterparts who appear unwilling to put public pressure on him for reform.

South Africa is negotiating a bailout loan to help Zimbabwe pay off arrears to the International Monetary Fund while Harare grows increasingly isolated from Western donors over its razing of shantytowns which the United Nations says has stripped 700,000 Zimbabweans of home or livelihood.

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