SADC meet gives DR Congo chance to belong

Outgoing Southern African Development Community (SADC) chair president Jacob Zuma of South Africa (L) talks with President of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Joseph Kabila during the SADC summit in Kinshasa, capital of DRC, Sept. 7, 2009. The 29th SADC summit opened here on Monday, looking into the political and economic developments in the region and examining the implications of the global economic crisis on the region (Xinhua)

KINSHASA, Tuesday,

Fifteen Heads of State and leaders of governments of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) States started Monday, September 7, 2009, the 29th summit of the organisation.

The two-day meeting takes place at the African Union City, in Ngaliema district, a hilly suburb of Kinshasa where late Marshall Mobutu established the State House. The place initially hosted the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1967.

Mobutu’s idea was to build a permanent venue for international meetings. The site provides a magical view on the capital city Kinshasa, the River Congo and the city of Brazzaville, in the neighbouring Republic of Congo. It has been specially rehabilitated in order to host the current summit.

The organisation of such a summit in DRC is in itself a big event given the political situation characterised by almost twenty years of social disturbances, wars and rebellions. President Joseph Kabila highlighted the fact in his official speech at the opening ceremony.

“The presence of such distinguished delegation in Kinshasa in an evidence of the effectiveness of the restoration of peace and security in our country.” he declared. In fact, DRC people have never had anymore such a honour for decades. The latest noticeable international meeting held in Kinshasa was the French African summit during Marshall Mobutu regime in late eighties.

For obvious reasons, the SADC is not sufficiently known by DRC people. Hence, they have been called to familiarise with the southern Africa organisation they belong to since 1997, mostly with the geography of the SADC countries and the faces of their political leaders.

Some leaders are known, such as Robert Mugabe who came to the summit with his Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Many of the SADC states leaders are visiting DRC for the first time such as Jacob Zuma of South Africa, King Mswati III of Swaziland, Armando Guebuza of Mozambique, Mr Festus Mogae of Botswana and Rupiah Banda of Zambia

Some others, present at the summit are familiar but are no longer presidents, like Joachim Chisano and Ketumile Masire, respectively former presidents of Mozambique and Botswana. For all these reasons, the 29th summit of SADC Heads of State is politically and diplomatically important for DRC.

It provides an invaluable opportunity for DRC people to get the responses of some key questions they are used to asking such as how DRC belongs at the same time to the southern Africa region and central Africa, or how their Francophone country will benefit from a mostly Anglophone organisation.

Huge debates were held in various media to this effect, prior to the summit and appropriate responses were provided by some key persons close to the organisation such as Ambassador Pene Mboko, the DRC representative in South Africa.

The Ambassador recognised the lack of knowledge about SADC issues in the country but he hoped that the Kinshasa SADC summit would help narrow the gap. DRC joined the organisation in 1997 while the country was facing unrest threats in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, Eastern DRC.

Since Monday, September 7, 2009, President Joseph Kabila is the acting chairperson of the summit after the South African Jacob Zuma. In his speech at the opening ceremony, he revealed some challenges the 29th summit has to address, mainly the consequences of the global financial crisis on the SADC States, the climate change, the trans-boundary trade, the customs barriers and the political disturbances in the region such as in DRC, in Zimbabwe and in Madagascar.

In this regard, encouraged the Zimbabwean political leaders to strengthen the agreements signed in Harare last February in order to solve the ongoing crisis and expressed his hope to see the political crisis in Madagascar find a sustainable solution under the supervision of President Joachim Chisano.

Joseph Kabila reiterated his gratitude to the SADC States for the military assistance DRC received from them during the 1998 war which threatened the security of the country. This DRC second war, called the Great War of Africa broke out in Eastern DRC in August 1998. It directly involved eight African countries, as well as 25 armed groups. The then president of the DRC, Laurent Kabila, sought help from fellow SADC member states who responded by sending in troops which prevented the rebel offensive on Kinshasa.

DRC people are generally aware of the military support the SADC provided when the country was facing attacks from various rebellions supported by some neighbouring countries, namely Rwanda and Uganda. “Without Zimbabwean and Angolan military assistance, the city of Kinshasa could have fallen in to any of the rebellions which were fighting the government”, Mafuta Ngoma, a businessman based in Kinshasa recalls.

In fact, SADC troops from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia saved the DRC government and pushed the rebel frontlines away from the capital, preventing the occurrence of general chaos in the country.

At the diplomatic level, SADC conducted several talks aimed at restoring peace in DRC. The memorable talks were held in Sun City, South Africa and led to the signature of the agreements which ended the war in DRC.

After the opening ceremony, the meeting continued behind closed doors. According to some credible sources, the Zimbabwe issue was removed from the agenda in order to be discussed in an extraordinary meeting.

In the framework of the 29th summit, a meeting of SADC main civil society organisations was held in Kinshasa in order to discuss some key issues to be presented to the SADC Head of States.

“As far as the summit is held in DRC we are expecting that the Head of States will focus on DRC problems. We are discussing issues concerning peace and security in Eastern DRC, sexual violence, trade, and illegal exportation of mineral resources by multinational companies, environment, and energy and so on.

We plan to produce a document as the Civil Society Organisations’ inputs to the 29th summit of the SADC Head of States”, Joseph Mukendi, a Congolese Human Rights activist told SANF. The Civil Society Organisation meeting ended on Sunday September 6, 2009.