Sadc Executive Secretary meets President Mnangagwa

Harare, March 2, 2020 (New Ziana) – The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) remains stable politically, but there are other challenges which need collective efforts to tackle including climate change, an official said on Monday.

Sadc Executive secretary, Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax said this after paying a courtesy call on President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is the current chair of the SADC organ on Politics, Defence and Security, at State House.

Dr Tax, who arrived in the country on Sunday, said she had come to Zimbabwe to appraise the organ chair on the developments within the region.

The Organ is responsible for ensuring peace and security in the region as well as leading SADC election observer teams to member states holding elections.

“His Excellency, President Mnangagwa is the current chair of the organ on politics, peace and security of Sadc so I was here to brief him about political, peace and security (situation) in the region as our current chair,” she said.

“As you can tell we are stable as a region, politically and yes that being the case there will always be challenges. We have challenges as you have seen, climate change is one of the challenges, youth unemployment is a challenge and a number of other dangers which need to be addressed.”

Dr Tax added; “When we talk about peace and security we look at social, economic and political environment holistically because there are a number of other areas if addressed then they have an impact on peace and security of our region.”

Zimbabwe assumed the rotational chairmanship of the Organ at the SADC summit in Tanzania in August last year.

Last week, President Mnangagwa’s deputy in the organ, Botswana’s Mokgweetsi Masisi commended Zimbabwe for its strong leadership of the Sadc Organ which has seen it ensuring stability in the sub-region.

As the Organ chair, Zimbabwe also led election observer missions to Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and Mauritius, which were held in a free, fair and transparent manner in accordance with the Sadc guidelines on elections.
New Ziana