President Ramaphosa pleased with progress made by SADC

President Cyril Ramaphosa is pleased with progress made by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on a number of issues of regional importance.

The issues include the reform process in the Kingdom of Lesotho, the conflict in Mozambique, the setting up of the SADC Logistics Centre and the anti-terrorism centre.

The President was speaking at the conclusion of his working visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo where he was leading a South African delegation to the 42nd Ordinary Summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on 16 – 17 August 2022.

Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr Naledi Pandor, Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, and Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Thabang Makwetla, accompanied the President on the visit.

On the reform process in the Kingdom of Lesotho, President Ramaphosa said he was pleased with the positive report tabled by Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro that serves as a real milestone in the lives of the Basotho.

SADC and South Africa played an important role in bringing about peace and normalcy in the Kingdom of Lesotho.

In a statement, the President said that SADC was also pleased with progress made in pushing back the insurgents in the Cabo Delgado area of the Republic of Mozambique and that SADC reaffirmed its “total commitment to supporting the people of Mozambique”.

“The pleasing thing was that the people who had fled the various areas in Cabo Delgado are now returning to their homes, with increased confidence that SADC has been helping them to bring about peace.”

President Ramaphosa said he was also pleased with progress brought about by SADC in the setting up of its Logistics Centre in the Republic of Botswana that will assist the countries in the region to deal with emergency situations.

He said he was also pleased with progress made in the already operational anti-terrorism centre that is situated in the Republic of Tanzania.

“We will be able to bring around the various assistance measures when there are either situations where our armed forces needs to intervene, so there should be a good logistics depot or where there are other forms of emergency,” President Ramaphosa said regarding the logistics centre.

The President is also pleased with SADC’s recorded progress on issues in the Kingdom of Eswatini and on challenges in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He said that he was happy that SADC is setting up a fact-finding mission on Eswatini and on its decision to send a panel of elders “to go and find effective ways to deal with the situation”. –