WeeklySA_AdminINTEGRATION: International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola has urged SADC countries to accelerate industrialisation and job creation, warning that hunger and unemployment threaten the region’s stability…
By Own Correspondent
DURBAN – About 58 million people across Southern Africa remain uncertain about where their next meal will come from, while unemployment exceeds 30 percent in six SADC member states, International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola has warned.
Delivering the closing remarks at the Southern African Development Community Council of Ministers meeting in Durban on Friday, Lamola said the two crises required urgent and coordinated regional action.
He commended Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia for making progress in combating hunger, but cautioned that food insecurity remained alarmingly high across the region.
“Even so, 58 million people in our region still live with the uncertainty of where their next meal will come from,” he said. “This figure is much too high and raises the alarm that we must accelerate our efforts.”
Lamola said high unemployment, particularly among young people and women, posed a serious danger to Southern Africa’s relative peace and stability.
The threat was especially concerning because young people constituted about 60 percent of the region’s population. Governments therefore had to respond to their demands for employment, training, business opportunities and the support needed to establish sustainable enterprises.
Lamola said women should also participate fully in shaping the region’s future. This required not only creating economic opportunities but also protecting women from violence and increasing their representation in institutions where decisions affecting their lives were taken.
The Council of Ministers meeting preceded the 46th Ordinary SADC Summit, held under the theme: “Resilient, sustainable and inclusive industrialisation through Infrastructure Development, Agricultural and Critical Minerals Transformation in Pursuit of a Just World.”
Lamola said discussions had focused on aligning the regional development roadmap with the summit’s central priorities.
He stressed that the success of SADC could not be judged merely by resolutions adopted at ministerial meetings and summits. Its work had to result in expanded economic opportunities, stronger regional resilience and improved livelihoods.
“The success of our work will be measured less by the decisions adopted here than by their translation into practical outcomes,” he said.
Achieving this would require transforming the productive structure of Southern African economies, expanding regional value chains and increasing trade among member states.
Lamola said the region needed to raise manufacturing’s contribution to its combined gross domestic product towards the SADC target of 30 percent by 2030. He also called for the urgent operationalisation of the SADC Humanitarian and Emergency Operations Centre to strengthen the region’s preparedness for climate disasters and future pandemics. Rural communities, in particular, needed confidence that governments would be better equipped to respond when the next drought, flood, cyclone or health emergency occurred.
Lamola told ministers that South Africa had used the meeting to brief its regional partners about recent violence and discrimination targeting migrants in the country, as well as the measures being taken to address the problem.
He said the incidents had caused “much anguish and apprehension” across Southern Africa.
South Africa welcomed the advice and “collective wisdom” offered by other SADC governments, including the call for the region to take greater ownership of the migration narrative.
Lamola said orderly migration and peaceful coexistence were in the interests of all member states.
“We have every confidence that, with our collective leadership and resolve, and drawing on our history of solidarity with one another, the harmonious coexistence of our peoples is possible,” he said.
“Safe, orderly and regular migration is in the interests of our entire region.” Lamola said the prosperity and security of each SADC country were inseparable from those of its neighbours. This understanding had sustained the regional organisation for decades and should continue guiding its development agenda.
He warned member states against becoming complacent about SADC’s previous achievements, saying governments needed to quicken the implementation of Vision 2050.
“We cannot afford to bask in the glory of past successes,” Lamola said. He called for sustained cooperation among member states, closer coordination with the SADC Secretariat and continued engagement with regional and international partners. The minister said the region’s people expected SADC to promote development, safeguard peace and stability and drive economic transformation.
He formally closed the Council meeting with a call for member states to preserve the spirit of solidarity and shared responsibility that had characterised their deliberations.
