FIRST and foremost I would like to say congratulations, makorokoto, amhlophe to His Excellency, The President of Zimbabwe on assuming the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Chairmanship.
I wish you a good tenure as the SADC chair.
I hope President Mugabe’s chairmanship will bring change in the region as a whole.
The region has been experiencing a lot of challenges presented by neo-colonialism forces.
Sadly some leaders gave in to such forces.
President Mugabe represents a unique brand of a leader with powerful principles which have been tried and tested against colonialism and more recently neo-colonialism.
We hope the President will apply his steadfastness not only in defending the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Zimbabwe but of the bloc and continent as a whole.
Well said Mr President when you said the regional bloc should wean itself from depending on foreign partners.
If we let foreign partners fund almost all our programmes and developmental projects then we will no longer be in control, they will be.
Our mission, vision and goals as the bloc will no longer be valid.
We do not want such a scenario Mr President.
Make other leaders in the region realise that solutions to our problems do not lie with the West and America.
Solutions lie with the daughters and sons of Africa.

Dion Gore
Harare