Mbeki continues as Zim mediator
22 April 2008
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has resolved that South African President Thabo Mbeki will continue mediating in Zimbabwe's post-election disputes.
The decision was made at an SADC conference in the Mauritian capital of Port Louis on the weekend, after Mbeki presented his report on the situation in Zimbabwe.
Zambian Foreign Minister Kabinga Pande said that the SADC was concerned with the situation in Zimbabwe, and was sending 40 observers who were already in the country to monitor the situation on the ground.
Leaders commit to tackling poverty
SADC leaders attending the Conference on Poverty and Development reaffirmed their commitment to eradicating poverty in the southern African region, despite challenges such as HIV/Aids, TB and malaria and the frequent national disasters that continued to affect the region.
The SADC's chairman, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, said it was important to focus on the regional dimensions and causes of poverty in order to effectively eradicate the scourge in the region.
In a statement read on his behalf by SADC executive secretary Tomaz Augusto Salomão, Mwanawasa called for full implementation of the SADC's long-term strategy for increasing regional integration, trade liberalisation and economic development.
He noted that in addition to diseases, under-employment, deficient economic structures, inadequate capital and skills, and marginalisation from the world economy, there were new developments that were further frustrating efforts to combat poverty in the region, including surging food, crop and energy prices and climate upheavals.
Mwanawasa said that in order to combat poverty, the SADC leaders had declared priority areas that required urgent attention, such as food security, addressing the adverse impact of climate change, and increasing capacity in power generation and transmission while increasing the use of renewable and alternative sources of energy.
Source: BuaNews-NNN
