The Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), His Excellency Mr. Elias M. Magosi, paid a courtesy call on His Excellency Mr Hakainde Hichilema, President of the Republic of Zambia at State House in Lusaka, on 17th June 2022, to discuss issues aimed at accelerating SADC region’s integration, cooperation and development.
The courtesy call is part of the SADC Executive Secretary’s programme to introduce himself to the Heads of State and Government in the region, share his ideas about a sustainable approach to expedite regional integration, achieve peace and security, as well as seek guidance and direction from the region’s leadership. The SADC Executive Secretary has so far, paid courtesy calls on Their Excellencies for the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republics of Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
The SADC Executive Secretary highlighted that, among his priorities during his tenure was to unblock the bottlenecks which slowed regional integration, industrialisation and easy access to markets in the region. “A lot of work has been done to put in place very good Protocols and legal instruments to facilitate deeper regional integration and to ensure that the region achieves its purpose, but the region has gaps which affect our pace of implementation on what has been agreed”, H.E. Magosi said.
H.E. Magosi said that a number of the SADC Protocols are not yet in force as they are yet to be acceded to, or ratified by the two-third majority, and that he has started to engage Member States to support them in their processes to ensure that the Protocols become operational. The SADC Executive Secretary said that the SADC region is gifted with abundant natural resources which presented mammoth opportunities for intra-regional trade and investment, which need to be maximised to improve the livelihoods of the citizens of the Community.
President Hichilema welcomed the SADC Executive Secretary, and assured him that the Republic of Zambia will support his ideas and his approach on how to expedite regional integration in the Community.
“Zambia is a committed member of SADC and be assured that the Republic of Zambia will support you on this fantastic agenda and approach,” H.E. Hichilema told the SADC Executive Secretary.
During the meeting, H.E. Mr. Hichilema, who was accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hon. Stanley K. Kakubo and senior officials from the Zambian Government, highlighted that the socio economic challenges facing the citizens of the SADC region called for enhanced regional cooperation, integration and industrialisation.
“We are too rich to be poor. With the amount of mineral wealth and natural resources within our regional community, we should be able to improve the lives of our citizens if we promote joint investments within our region, and focus on our comparative advantages, maximising our value chains and enabling easy movement of goods and services and access to markets”, H.E. Hichilema said.
The Zambian President shared ideas and proposed some regional infrastructure projects for the SADC Executive Secretary to consider. Some of these have the potential to make real and tangible impact while also attracting the necessary funding for their execution.
While in Zambia, the SADC Executive Secretary visited the SADC Plant Genetic Resources Centre (SPGRC) where he appreciated the role played by Centre to facilitate conservation and use of plant genetic resources in the region to improve agricultural production and maintenance of species diversity for present and future generations. He also had the opportunity to interact with staff at the Centre and exchanged views with them.
H.E. Magosi is the seventh Executive Secretary of SADC who assumed his position on 1st September, 2021, following his appointment at the 41st SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Lilongwe, Malawi in August, 2021.
The SADC Executive Secretary was accompanied by the Directors for the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Affairs, Mr Jorge Cardoso, Dr Mubita Luwabelwa for Policy Planning and Resource Mobilisation, Mr Domingos Gove for Food Agriculture and Natural Resources, the Head of Communications and Public Relations Ms Barbara Lopi and the Executive Assistant to the Executive Secretary Ms Kelejwang Moichubedi from the SADC Secretariat.
