President Mnangagwa assumes role as SADC chairperson

African Heads of State and Government on Saturday gathered in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, for the 44th Ordinary Summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The gathering elected President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, as the Chairperson of SADC, and Madagascar President, Andry Rajoelina, as the incoming Chairperson.

The leaders agreed that African countries should leverage on the youth potential in the region for innovation, industrialization, peace and socio-economic growth.

In his acceptance speech as the incoming SADC chair, Mnangagwa emphasized the need for Southern African countries to harness innovation potential to maximize value from their natural resources to accelerate development.

“We must ensure that youth and entrepreneurs including women embrace technology and innovation revolution for development,” he told delegates.

The Zimbabwean president stressed the importance of developing innovative strategies across sectors to stay ahead of the fourth industrial revolution and build sustainable prosperity.

READ MORE: Communique of the 44th SADC Summit of the Heads of State and Government.

João Lourenço, President of the Republic of Angola, and outgoing SADC Chair highlighted progress made by the region in various sectors including in energy, transport and water resources and internet coverage.

The SADC region he said, now has 86% mobile network coverage and 54% internet access which means that half of the region’s population has access to information and communication.

“I urge member states to continue investing in energy infrastructure to increase production, transmission and diversification of energy sources and adopt sustainable practices to promote economic development,” he said.

Additionally, Lourenço noted the efforts by member states to simplify and facilitate regional movement of people and goods with the introduction of visa exemption by some countries and abolishment of visas by others, as well as the creation on one stop border posts in order to simplify and facilitate the movement of people.

The Summit commended the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Kingdom of Eswatini, and Republics of Madagascar, South Africa and Zimbabwe for holding managing to hold recent elections.

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