The Republic of Botswana and SADC have hailed the progress made in returning Madagascar to constitutional normalcy and urged the region to spare no effort at ensuring that democracy and the rule of law take root. In this regard, they agreed that the SADC Early Warning System Mechanism should be optimally used to monitor the situation in the region in order to prevent the countries from spiralling into conflicts.
This was said when SADC Executive Secretary H.E. Dr. Stergomena Lawrence Tax paid a courtesy call on the President of the Republic of Botswana, H.E. Lt General Seretse Khama Ian Khama in Gaborone early this week.
President Khama and Dr. Tax also hailed the positive developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the on-going efforts aimed at enhancing governance structures and frameworks, as well as accelerating socio-economic development in DRC. They furthermore reiterated the need for continued concerted efforts to find a peaceful and lasting resolution to the conflict in the DRC.
While recognising that SADC has achieved tremendous successes politically, with stability in the region, they reiterated the importance of economic integration as the main objective of SADC, with a view to bring about socio-economic development, while upholding peace, security and political stability as an important pillar to regional integration. They reaffirmed the strategic importance of infrastructure development in regional integration.
In recalling that five SADC Member States are going for elections in 2014, President Khama and Dr. Tax called on SADC Member States to uphold the democratic and governance values enshrined in the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections. They said, adherence to the Principles and Guidelines will enhance and guarantee good governance, democracy, the rule of law and universal suffrage in the region.
