President Lazarus Chakwera has ended his tenure as Southern African Development Community (Sadc) chairperson with a strong appeal against the unfair exploitation of minerals and other resources in the region by foreign nations.

In his keynote address yesterday delivered at the start of the 42nd Ordinary Summit of Sadc Heads of State and Government in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), he said time has come for the world to be told that while the regional bloc is open for business, it is not up for sale.

Chakwera said: “We must get our act together and work together to protect these resources. If we do not do that, the forces we all know are already in our region from the West and the East will surely succeed in their intentions to steal them from us.”

In the address leading to the subsequent handover of the mantle to DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, the Malawi leader urged leaders of member States to desist from being used to steal resources from their own people.

The President said the region can develop by pooling those resources together through instruments such as the Sadc Regional Development Fund.

Chakwera (R) hands over the chairmanship gravel to Tshisekedi (L)

Chakwera said there is no economic bloc in the world that is as endowed with resources as Sadc, highlighting that the natural and mineral resources available within the region are more than enough to finance any projects needed across Africa.

He said: “There is no one outside Africa who is coming to build Africa the way we want it to be built. Not the Americans. Not the Europeans. Not the Asians.

“They may give us a road here and there, a stadium or two, a few million dollars that are nothing more than pocket change to them and that are nothing compared to the amounts they give each other as Westerners or Easterners. We need serious resources here and there is no one who is going to hand it to us.”

While acknowledging that it was not politically correct to make such a statement, the outgoing Sadc chairperson said it was not right to feign ignorance that some Western and Asian governments have “a history and track record of theft”.

Chakwera said some foreign nations come to Africa bearing gifts and loans with hidden motives he said are traps leading to the loss of rich resources, including minerals, water, fertile land as well as human talent from the continent.

Chakwera took over the Sadc chairmanship from Mozambique President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi on August 17 2021.

During the opening ceremony, Chakwera reported that during his one-year tenure, Sadc worked among others, towards promotion of aquaculture value chains in member States, including Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Lesotho and Madagascar.

He further said Sadc has been working to reduce overall international Internet connectivity costs and latency and to provide better quality service and browsing experience for users in the region by deploying of Internet exchange points.

On energy, the President said efforts are being made to ensure Malawi, Tanzania and Angola interconnect to the Southern African Power Pool which has installed generation capacity of 69 216 megawatts.

In his remarks, Sadc executive secretary Elias Magosi thanked Chakwera for his leadership in promoting regional integration and pledged support to the new chairperson.

During the meeting, medals of honour were presented, most of which were posthumous, to founders of Sadc who included Malawi’s founding president Hastings Kamuzu Banda, former president of Tanzania the late Julius Nyerere and former president of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe, among others.

There were also media awards and secondary school essay competition awards presented at the meeting. In the media awards, Malawi Broadcasting Corporation journalist Henry Haukeya won in the television category.

The summit, which ends today, is being held under the theme ‘Promoting Industrialisation Through, Agro-Processing, Mineral Beneficiation, and Regional Value Chains for Inclusive and Resilient Economic Growth’.

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