Luanda – The leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), this Thursday in the Province of Luanda honoured one of the founders of the organisation, the first President of Botswana, Seretse Khama, within the framework of the 43rd Summit in Luanda.
A forerunner of SADC, Seretse Khama was first a king of Bechuanaland and then the first president of Botswana, a position he held from the country's independence in 1966 until his death on July 13, 1980 in Gaborone, Botswana.
To this end, the member states of the organization awarded him posthumously a medal of honour.
The regional organization was created in April 1980, in Zambia, under the name Southern Africa Development Coordination Conference (SADCC).
Seretse Khama wanted to reduce economic dependence on the then racist South Africa and with the end of Apartheid in 1992, the organization became the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an intergovernmental organization, created in 1992, and dedicated to the region's social and economic cooperation and integration, as well as cooperation on policy and security issues.
SADC's main objective is to focus on economic development, peace, security, growth, poverty reduction in order to raise the standard and quality of life of the peoples of Southern Africa, as well as support disadvantaged social strata through regional integration.
The regional organization comprises Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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