SADC leaders to adopt election guidelines

Southern African regional leaders meeting in Mauritius are expected to adopt key guidelines on democratic elections, and discuss the implementation of a 15-year development programme. In his final address as outgoing chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa on Monday outlined the challenges facing the region, stressing agrarian and electoral reforms. The summit meeting of heads of state and government will discuss the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections, which was drafted by defence and foreign ministers in South Africa three weeks ago, and made all the more salient by civil society demands that regional leaders ensure the fairness of next year's ballot in Zimbabwe. Mkapa noted that "contrary to what is often portrayed in the media, these principles are not directed at anyone, or any group of countries. Our effort to agree on such principles and guidelines is the culmination of introspection and self-assertion". "We are tired of being lectured on democracy by the very countries, which, under colonialism, either directly denied us the rights of free citizens, or were indifferent to our suffering and yearning to break free and be democratic," Mkapa said. He added that "in democracy, as in all other things, no one size fits all". The SADC guidelines to be adopted should thus be "assessed on our terms, and our yardsticks, not on those of others. Above all, multiparty democracy and its attendant elections must never be a cover for the destabilization of our countries," Mkapa said. African Union Commission deputy chair Patrick Mazhimaka told delegates that the principles and guidelines being discussed "stand to deepen the culture of democracy in the region". He said efforts to ensure that Southern Africa overcame "the devastating cycles of food insecurity" and that "agriculture plays its important role for economic growth, poverty reduction and broad-based development cannot be divorced from the sensitive question of land reform". "Let SADC speak with one voice on this matter, and let the outside world understand that land and agrarian reform in the SADC region is necessary," Mkapa added. He noted that while different land reform strategies might apply in the various member states, "there is no gainsaying the necessity of some form of reform in all [SADC] countries". Zimbabwe's controversial fast-track land reform programme has been a thorny issue for SADC, and the manner in which land reform was carried out attracted widespread condemnation from the international community. Mkapa was at pains to stress that the region would listen to its own conscience on such matters. "Let SADC speak with [one] voice, and let the outside world take note that we have not forgotten how the best lands in many parts of Southern Africa ended up in the hands of minority groups. It was a process of widespread and often violent or treacherous dispossession, with neither fair price nor compensation; with neither legal recourse nor respect for good governance and human rights," said Mkapa. Although these past indiscretions may be forgiven, he said "we cannot run away from our historical duty to set right these historical wrongs and injustices, now that we are in power". Member states were attempting to do this "in a much more civilized way - we want to create fair and just mechanisms" for land redistribution. Noting that "the development and long-term stability of our region demands that we take a coordinated approach to issues of land distribution, utilisation, tenure, administration and adjudication", the SADC agreed to establish a Regional Land Reform Technical Committee. This committee will provide both technical and financial support to member states in designing and implementing land and agrarian reform. Mkapa urged the establishment of the committee be fast-tracked "and that all development partners of ours who are committed to helping us in this process should come forward with firm commitments and real resources to set this process in motion". HIV/AIDS, FOOD SECURITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH SADC Executive Secretary Prega Ramsamy noted that two blueprints for the secretariat and SADC Organ would soon be available. Although the region has registered positive economic growth over the past 10 years, he said many member states needed assistance in infrastructure development. "We are also focusing on development corridors, where the aim is to provide all missing transport and communication links to facilitate trade and development". "The first issue we need to tackle head-on is food insecurity brought on by, among others, cyclical droughts, floods and cyclones. Despite an increase in total cereal production, estimated at 24.97 million mt, which is 10 percent higher than last year's production, preliminary assessments from the National Vulnerability Assessments conducted in April/May 2004 indicate that close to 5.4 million people may need humanitarian assistance during the 2004/05 marketing year," Ramsamy said. Mazhimaka reminded delegates during his address that "hunger and malnutrition kill more people every year than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined". "The AU is happy that SADC has challenged itself to eliminate hunger in the region in two years. This is possible: the region has some of the most arable land in the world. With strategic investment in soil fertility, irrigation, input supply, marketing arrangements, grain storage facilities etc, SADC can and should emerge from being a food deficit to a food surplus region," Mazhimaka said. With regard to the challenge of HIV/AIDS, Mkapa noted that the region is the "global epicentre of HIV/AIDS". Ramsamy said the impact of HIV/AIDS "continues to be a major source of concern for the entire SADC region, as it is depleting our vital human capital and eroding socioeconomic gains". While the 2003 Maseru Declaration provided "a framework of commitment to fight against this pandemic," Mkapa said, "we need to translate it into deeds, nationally and regionally". The Declaration provides for both preventive interventions and measures to "improve the quality of life of people living with HIV and Aids", Ramsamy observed. An HIV and AIDS unit has been established in the SADC secretariat, and an HIV/AIDS Trust Fund initiated. Mkapa announced that South Africa had made the first contribution of R1 million (about US $156,000) to the Fund. Mauritian Prime Minister Paul Berenger took over the chairmanship of SADC from Mkapa on Monday. His maiden address focused on the importance of the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) and the Strategic Indicative Plan for the Organ (SIPO). "These roadmaps for an integrated community will guide us for the next fifteen years," Berenger told the delegates. The RISDP was launched in March this year and provides priorities for regional integration, economic growth and poverty alleviation, while SIPO was launched at the summit on Monday.