SADC extraordinary summit postponed

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has postponed the extraordinary summit of heads of state and government that was originally scheduled to be held, in virtual format, on Friday.

A Thursday statement from the SADC Secretariat said that the summit will now be held next Wednesday, 12 January, in the Malawian capital of Lilongwe. Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera is the current chairperson of SADC, and he will chair the extraordinary summit.

The purpose of the summit, the statement added, is “to review progress of the SADC Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) which was deployed to support Mozambique to combat terrorism and acts of violent extremism”.

Prior to the summit, on Tuesday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, will convene an extraordinary meeting of the Troika of the SADC Organ on Political, Defence and Security Cooperation. Attending this meeting will be the three current members of the troika, namely South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, plus Mozambique.

The Troika summit will be followed, on Tuesday evening, by an extraordinary session of the SADC Council of Ministers.

The statement notes that, “in accordance with the SADC Treaty, the SADC Summit is responsible for the overall policy direction and control of functions of the community, ultimately making it the policy-making institution of SADC”.

Clearly, the Summit’s immediate priority must be to decide on the future of SAMIM. The mission was deployed in July 2021 following approval by an Extraordinary SADC Summit held in Maputo, on 23 June 2021, as a regional response to support Mozambique in the fight against terrorism in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

Eight SADC member states have provided personnel for SAMIM, namely South Africa, Botswana, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia, working under the overall coordination of the Mozambican defence forces. A non-SADC member, Rwanda, is also supplying forces to assist in the anti-terrorist drive.

The summit is expected to decide on whether to extend the mandate of SAMIM, and for how long. - Africa