IT was not until President Robert Mugabe took to the podium to deliver his acceptance speech as the new Southern African Development Community (SADC) Chairman in Victoria Falls on Sunday that the reshaping of the regional bloc began in its quest to achieve economic transformation in earnest.
His taking over of the reins at the SADC 34th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government also signalled an astonishing reversal of fortunes for Zimbabwe.
Slightly a year ago, Zimbabwe was a permanent feature on the SADC agenda as the MDC-led fights to isolate Harare from the global community.
The SADC had since 2007 closely monitored and reviewed the political situation in Zimbabwe and it was only taken off the regional bloc agenda following the July 31 2013 harmonised elections resoundingly won by President Mugabe and ZANU PF.
However, on Sunday, the opening day of the historic summit, a carnival atmosphere pervaded the resort town of Victoria Falls as President Mugabe announced his arrival as the new supremo of the regional bloc with a stark reminder to the 13 leaders from the 15-member grouping who witnessed the colourful ceremony that they should honour their heroes who drove the fight to liberate Africa from colonial rule.
The gathering was taken down memory lane, in a sign that the continent was losing focus by not recognising their heroes.
Africa, President Mugabe said, has largely ignored independence struggle heroes particularly former Tanzanian President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.
“Those who formed the Frontline States, we don’t have them now except ‘KK’ (Dr Kenneth Kaunda),” said President Mugabe.
“Nyerere of Tanzania is gone, Machel of Mozambique is gone, Neto of Angola is gone, Sir Seretse Khama of Botswana is gone.
“They are the ones who formed the Frontline States which formed SADCC, with two ‘C’s.
“SADCC was a coordinating body at that time, and a body on the strength of whose reckonings a lot happened, political freedoms came.”
The Front Line States (FLS) were five sub-Saharan African nations adjacent to the then Rhodesia: Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia, reads a Wikipedia report.
Formed in 1970, all were relatively new nations and were former white-ruled colonies now ruled by Africans, and all played an important role in the struggle against white-ruled states in Africa.
The FLS shared other characteristics as well.
In all these states Western ideas and institutions of political and personal liberties do not apply.
Their policies played an important role in determining the future of Southern Africa and indeed of the whole Third World.
President Mugabe recounted the birth of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now African Union (AU), which in turn dictated that the liberation of the whole of Africa would be done through a body called the Liberation Committee hosted by Tanzania.
“All liberation movements were housed there, some divided as we had our own, ZANU and ZAPU, SWAPO and SWANU in Namibia and ANC in South Africa,” said President Mugabe.
“And the results were of course resounding.
“Africa became free, Africa became free.
“But we have not done much by way of paying tribute to our founding fathers.
“We forgot, perhaps because we are a new generation of leaders, that the greatest burden of freeing Africa was borne by one country, Tanzania.”
President Mugabe said while ‘something’ had been done to honour pioneer nationalists such as the late Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and South African icon Nelson Mandela at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Nyerere had not received any recognition despite his deserving contribution.
“That one, not that he was the greatest, but Nyerere Mwalimu — no mention, no symbol to remember his part,” he said.
“I’m saying ‘No!’, we will do something.
“Help us, help me so that we respect Mwalimu at the AU somehow.”
In Victoria Falls there was also a convergence of ideas between Zimbabwe and SADC as seen by the theme of the summit, ‘SADC Strategy for Economic Transformation — Leveraging the Region’s Diverse Resources for Sustainable Economic and Social Development through Beneficiation and Value Addition’.
Harare has adopted the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-ASSET) which prioritises beneficiation and value addition to the country’s abundant mineral resources.
Accepting his new post, President Mugabe pledged to contribute to the SADC agenda, and expressed confidence that the region focuses on interventions that have the greatest impact on the wellbeing of its citizens.
He thanked SADC for supporting Zimbabwe through difficult times, including those brought on by illegal Western sanctions.
With over 700 delegates, among them, Cabinet ministers, AU Commission Chair, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, SADC Executive Secretary Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax, legislators, service chiefs and diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe, the country made its mark on a region that has yet to realise its full potential.
President Michael Sata of Zambia and his Angolan counterpart Jose Eduardo dos Santos were represented by their deputies.
As the summit wound up on Monday evening, the booming sounds of sirens could yet have been ringing for the dawn of a new era, that of the reshaping of SADC.
Let those with ears listen.