Luanda – The minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of South Africa, Naledi Pandor, stated Tuesday in Pretoria that SADC continues to hold democratic, transparent, fair, peaceful and credible elections according to the legislation of the member states and the principles and guidelines of the organization.
According to a note from the the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Angola, to which ANGOP has had access, the South African minister was speaking about the elections in Angola scheduled for 24 August and in the Kingdom of Lesotho set for October, both this year.
Naledi Pandor spoke on the 24th ordinary meeting of the SADC Ministerial Committee of the Cooperation Body in the Areas of Politics, Defence and Security.
She emphasized that SADC is aware of the need to extend the boundaries of the democratic principles in the region, to improve the conditions of the citizens and prevent conflicts.
Naledi Pandor, who is also the chairman of the Ministerial Committee of the Cooperation Body in the Areas of Politics, Defence and Security of SADC, stated that the liberation struggle was fought in this region and across Africa with global agenda to obtain independence of the colonial masters, to entrench and sustain democracy in African societies.
At the beginning of the 24th ordinary meeting of the aforementioned ministerial committee of SADC, the participants paid homage to the former Angolan Head of State, José Eduardo dos Santos, who died on 8 July, in Barcelona, Kingdom of Spain, victim of an illness.
The delegates recalled Dos Santo´s contribution in the struggle against the apartheid regime in South Africa, as well as for other African countries independence.
As part of the rotating presidency, José Eduardo dos Santos was president of SADC from 2002 to 2003 and from 2011 to 2012, respectively.
The Angolan delegation to the meeting is headed by the secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Esmeralda Mendonça, and includes ambassadors Filomena Delgado (ambassador to South Africa) and Beatriz Morais (ambassador to Botswana and the Southern African Development Community).
According to the SADC statutes, the organ for Politics, Defence and Security Areas of the community, coordinates the cooperation in the respective areas and it has a bipartite structure, composed by a troika which operates on an annual rotational basis.
The troika comprises the chairperson, vice-chairperson, the outgoing chair and a ministerial committee.
SADC is a regional organization, created in 1992 and dedicated to the socio-economic cooperation and integration, as well as cooperation in political and security matters of the Southern Africa countries.
