Southern African Development Community and the New South Africa

Abstract

The countries that now make up Southern African Development Community (SADC) have been linked historically in a number of ways. Although the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritius, Seychelles and, Tanzania to some extent are less closely associated with the core grouping. Economically, the original development of this group was largely centered on the exploitation of gold and diamond fields of South Africa, and to lesser extent, the copper mines in Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia), as well as agricultural products in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Labor was recruited from most of the current SADC member states to serve these areas of economic concentration while trade and transport links radiated outward. Six of the fourteen SADC States are land-locked. The ports of Beira, Lobito, Benguela, Durban, Cape Town, and Maputo have served the landlocked countries as well as the great industrial and mining Center of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.

The ultimate objective is to achieve economic liberation and to reduce our economic dependence on the Republic of South Africa…through regional and coordinated efforts. It is not our objective to plot against anybody or any country, but on the contrary to lay the foundation for the development of a new economic order in Southern Africa, and forge a united community wherein will lie our strength of survival in the future. I am convinced that with the collective will and determination with which we have struggled for political freedom we can succeed in our struggle for economic liberation.

—President of the Republic of Botswana, Seretse Khama¹