The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State and Government Summit will take place virtually on Monday.
It will be hosted by the incoming chairperson, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, who takes over from Tanzania’s President John Magafuli. This year’s theme is centred around building peace and
Nyusi’s taking over as SADC chair, under the theme 40 years of Building Peace and Promoting Development and Resilience in the Face of Global Challenges, comes with some irony.
His country is battling increased insurgency as IS militants continue to extend their territory. Earlier this year – Nyusi asked the Troika Organ on Defence and Politics for assistance in tackling the issue.
Also expected on the agenda is the allegation of human rights violations in Zimbabwe – after a crackdown on activists resulted in arrests and the quelling of freedom of speech.
The region’s Economic recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will also be discussed.
Call to address human rights challenge
SADC leaders must urgently take concrete measures to fix the human rights crisis in the region when they meet at their annual summit, Amnesty International said on Friday.
“A number of countries in the SADC region are experiencing alarming human rights violations and abuses threatening peace and stability and hindering the response to COVID-19. In Zimbabwe, authorities have stepped up a crackdown on dissenting voices with state security forces unleashed on activists, human rights defenders, journalists and opposition supporters,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa.
“COVID-19 has exposed the fragilities of the regional economy. In the absence of adequate social protection millions of people employed in the informal economy and those who lost their jobs are facing starvation and destitution, and protecting their lives and other human rights must be top of the agenda at the SADC summit.”
COVID-19
This year’s SADC summit takes place amid surging rates of COVID-19 infections across the region taking a huge socio-economic toll as well as on health.
Much of the region’s population lives in the margins of the mainstream economy, with no regular income nor guaranteed livelihoods.
Poor health infrastructure in countries even in larger economies such as South Africa means that the poor and marginalized are at greater risk of dying from COVID-19 related complications due to lack of access to appropriate health care and treatment.
