Windhoek
President Hage Geingob today joins his regional counterparts in Swaziland for the 36th SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government to discuss, chief amongst others, funds mobilisation for energy infrastructure development, penalties for states that are not paying membership fees as well as the SADC Administrative Tribunal.
Also, the regional trade bloc summit will endorse the rise of Swaziland’s King Mswati III to the SADC chairmanship, taking over from President Seretse Khama Ian Khama of Botswana.
Speaking at Eros Airport yesterday before his departure for Swaziland, President Geingob highlighted some of the agenda points for the summit.
“Regional integration, the Pan-African Parliament is going to come up and the idea to transform it to a legislative body is not an easy one.”
“We are also going to talk about financing, it is a budget session. We [Namibia] are always paid up, but some countries are in arears and they were told how to pay. Like Madagascar was caught in a war and that is why they are really behind, they are paying now and there are others,” noted Geingob.
“So there is going to be talks of ideas of how to [deal with these issues]. [Maybe] not allow them to participate or not to vote.”
Geingob stressed that it is an ordinary session which will include various electoral processes.
The summit will be held under the theme, ‘Resource Mobilisation for Investment in Sustainable Energy Infrastructure for an Inclusive SADC Industrialisation for the Prosperity of the Region.’
According to the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC), the summit comes at a time when SADC is vigorously pursuing an initiative to industrialise the economies of the 15 member states.
It is further noted that the SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap, which is aimed to allow the region to harness the full potential of its vast and diverse natural resources, will also be discussed as the bloc is in the process of developing a costed action plan.
Other reports have indicated that the summit will deal with the Maseru Declaration on HIV and AIDS and the regional effort to combat malaria and tuberculosis.
Other matters will reportedly include youth development and empowerment, progress made towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the revised SADC Protocol on Gender as well as review proposals for the nomination of judges to serve on the SADC Administrative Tribunal.