Global Research: 21-08-2024,
President Emmerson Mnangagwa of the Republic of Zimbabwe has emerged as the regional chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) 44th Annual Summit which was held in Harare on August 17.
SADC is a 16-member regional organization composed of states and their affiliates extending from the Republic of South Africa to the Seychelles and as far north as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Since 1980 when its predecessor organization, the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC), was founded in Lusaka, Zambia which later transitioning towards SADC in Windhoek, Republic of Namibia in 1992 to the present era, the mission of the grouping is to foster economic cooperation, peacekeeping operations and solidarity with other oppressed and exploited people in Africa and around the globe.
On its website the organization states:
“The main objectives of SADC are to achieve development, peace and security, and economic growth, to alleviate poverty, enhance the standard and quality of life of the peoples of Southern Africa, and support the socially disadvantaged through regional integration, built on democratic principles and equitable and sustainable development.”
Nonetheless, after decades of struggles for the total liberation of Southern Africa and efforts to realize progress towards its “Vision 2050”, obstacles to regional and continental integration remain intertwined with international divisions of economic power and relations of production. With the 44th Annual SADC Summit being held in the capital of Zimbabwe where the western imperialist states such as the United States and the United Kingdom are continuing to impose draconian sanctions on the host country,