The Sunday Mail
A partly cloudy, partially sultry Victoria Falls on a Saturday would have been mellowed by a leisurely stroll in the resort town’s rainforest and occasional vistas of the thundering and mighty falls.
The population was sparse in the city centre, with foreign tourists in T-shirts and shorts and wide-brimmed hats the main feature in Livingstone Road and the many curio shops.
But something more compelling was taking place. There was a lot of vehicular movement.
The rather serene environment was intermittently punctuated by the high pitched sirens of motor cycle outriders as they brought in Heads of State and Government from Victoria Falls International Airport for the 34th Sadc Summit August 17 and 18, 2013.
Zimbabwe assumed the regional bloc’s rotating chair for a year. At ministerial level, Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi assumed the chair of the Council of Ministers; meaning he was the man in charge of all the preparatory work – from the summit theme to the handover of the Chairmanship from Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika to President Mugabe.
The theme was “Sadc strategy for economic transformation: Leveraging the region’s diverse resources for sustainable economic and social development through beneficiation and value addition”.
This was in line with the bloc’s 15-year Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan adopted by Sadc leaders in 2003 as a roadmap for regional integration and development.
However, echoes of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation are very loud in the theme, and for a reason too.
One of the issues which came up often during Council of Ministers deliberations was funding for various development programmes, from energy to infrastructure and agriculture.
Despite the region’s rich mineral endowment, it is still classified among the poorest in the world.
Minister Mumbengegwi put the issue of implementation into perspective, indicating that good intentions alone were not enough.
Accepting Chairmanship of the Sadc Council of Ministers, the minister said: “It is not how many meetings we hold that will determine how effective we are. It is not how many agreements we sign that will determine our impact on the people that we serve.”
He then posed the big question from the people, saying citizens were always asking, “What is Sadc doing to uplift the quality of their lives to rid them of poverty, underdevelopment and other social ills?”
He responded, “Our success should be measured by the impact of our actions on the people.”
The next question seemed to suggest itself; does the region have the resources? Where does it get them if the answer is ‘no’? This led to the obvious paradox of a region richly endowed with every conceivable mineral but has people living in dire poverty while nations are plagued by debt, unemployment and disease.
This must have persuaded the region towards convergence on the issue of beneficiation and value addition to minerals and agricultural products, both of which are the basis of industrial development.
Honourable Mumbengegwi pointed out at a Press briefing, together Sadc Executive Secretary, Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax, that Zimbabwe was exporting about 90 percent of its products in their raw form.
That meant the country was losing a lot of the mineral and agricultural value to those who were able to process and add value.
He noted that most mining companies were reluctant to invest in local processing plants, quoting the costs in billions of dollars just to keep factories in their mother countries running.
The minister was forced to confront robust questions of resource-ownership by at least three journalists from the region.
They wanted to know how Sadc intended to carry out beneficiation and value addition when most mines were owned by foreign companies. What was the level of commitment to this undertaking?
The minister was very modest about Zimbabwe’s own radical approach.
He acknowledged the dilemma raised by the journalists, but pointed out, “We in Zimbabwe have chosen the 51/ 49 percent ownership structure to deal with the issue of ownership. We are not saying other countries should follow our example but that is how we are doing it. It is a serious dilemma.”
He said it would be “un-Sadc-like” for Zimbabwe to dictate policy issues to fellow member states.
It was enough that the Summit theme was agreed through consultation and consensus. The leaders would have to confront it head-on.
Whatever the final result of the Summit, what cannot be ignored is that Sadc is beginning to think more about funding its own programmes. Development partners might still be important, but there is a realisation that African resources are being grossly undervalued by being exported unprocessed.
This change of attitude is an important starting point. It is about changing the rules of the game.
For years Africa has supplied the world with resources which are under the control of multinationals, getting very little in return.
Those who have been stealing and looting its resources always insist on a good return on investment but have never given Africa a good return for its resources.
Zimbabwe might have made blunders in the land reform, but the lessons have been learnt.
Those who have been looting the continent’s resources may also continue to denounce and denigrate Zimbabwe for its so-called ruinous and disastrous policies, but that is just cold comfort. They don’t sleep easy anymore.
That is why Lonmin is being forced to consider the sale of some of its mining concerns in South Africa in light of losses suffered as a result of prolonged strikes by platinum mines in that country.
There is a growing realisation among Africans that employment on its own, especially given the unpredictability of market trends and the global economy, does not provide sufficient security for the worker.
By extension, talk of FDI and employment creation only provides temporary shelter.
The fact that questions on resource-ownership and funding for Sadc programmes were asked by journalists from outside Zimbabwe is a big political statement on its own.
It means these issues are being raised in the region. It means young people are worried about the continent’s dependency on foreign funding. It means people are being to realise that without guaranteed funding, policies will remain empty promises.
More than that, reliance on foreign funding means you have to compromise on your plans.
As the late Burkinabe revolutionary Thomas Sankara pointed out, he who feeds you can impose his will on you.
If Sadc is to be part of the “rising Africa” it must think seriously and implement urgent strategies for industrialisation for resource beneficiation and value addition.
More importantly, it must mobilise internal funding to reduce external debt.
That means there must be increased inter-state and intra-state trade.
That means on the global stage, Africans must begin once again to view interests as shared. That is why African leaders must guard against being divided by those who posture as masters of the universe and who tell them how they should run their countries. It is the same old and tried and tested trick of divide and rule by sowing seeds of disharmony and unnecessary competition for European and American patronage.
Africa has got resources to deploy its influence in global politics.
It is an infantile lie to claim that even as a continent Africa cannot dictate and set its own terms of engagement with Europe and America.
The trick lies in community of purpose and accepting the challenge that it’s us Africans who know best what is best for us.
Joram Nyathi is Zimpapers group political editor. He can be reached at [email protected]
