Harare - The new chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and head of the Zimbabwean diplomacy, Frederick Shava, urged, on Wednesday, the organization's member states to put an end to external dependence for financing regional integration projects.
Frederick Shava made the call at the end of the preparatory ministerial meeting for the 44th SADC ordinary summit to take place Saturday in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare.
For the Zimbabwean Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the regional bloc cannot continue to rely on international cooperation partners, who also have their own priorities.
Frederick Shava underscored that the current balance of implementation of the regional bloc's projects in fundamental areas such as infrastructural development, industrialization and regional integration is “not positive”, as reflected in the report of the SADC executive secretary.
Shava urged member states to timely fulfill their financial and statutory obligations, for the successful implementation of existing transformational strategies.
In addition, he said the organization must make fewer and fewer decisions and favor those that have a greater probability of implementation, always guided by the principles of subsidiarity and complementarity.
The positions of the head of Zimbabwean diplomacy were corroborated by his Angolan counterpart, Téte António, as an outgoing chairman of the SADC Council of Ministers.
Téte António confirmed that the organization continues to fall far short of its goals in terms of program implementation due, above all, to financial deficit contributions of the member states.
“We cannot demand from the Executive Secretariat (of the organization) the implementation of programs for which we do not pay,” the Angolan Foreign minister said.
The head of Angolan diplomacy handed over the presidency of the SADC Council of Ministers to his Zimbabwean counterpart, at the opening session of the ministerial meeting held Tuesday in the new Parliament building, in Harare. IZ/ADR/TED/AMP
