Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Wednesday took over the chairmanship of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) during the 42nd Ordinary SADC Summit held in Kinsasha.
Malawi has been chairing the regional block for the last one year 2021-2022 under the leadership of President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera.
In ushering a new era of SADC Leadership, the opening ceremony also witnessed the acceptance statement of the new SADC Chairperson Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilomb, President of DRC Congo and host of the 42nd Ordinary SADC Summit.
Accompanying President Ramkalawan at the 42nd SADC Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government was the Seychelles Ambassador to the African Union, Conrad Mederic, the Director Regional Affairs, Christian Faure and and Third Secretary SADC Desk, Jean-Philippe Bannane.
Hearty congratulations to our brother H.E President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi on assuming the SADC Chairmanship. Toute nos félicitations! @Presidence_RDC @SADC_News pic.twitter.com/Ymgip0bn5T
— Hakainde Hichilema (@HHichilema) August 17, 2022
The developments come months after DRC Congo was admitted to the East African Community regional block.
In June 2019,the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, wrote to the then EAC Chairperson, President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, expressing his country’s wish to be a member of the bloc.
In March DRC Congo was admitted to the EAC during the virtual 19th Extra-Ordinary Summit of EAC Heads of State that was chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The summit then designated President Kenyatta to sign the treaty of accession of the Democratic Republic of Congo into the East African Community by 14th April 2022.
In April DRC Congo officially became the 7th member of EAC.
In 2021 during the 41st Summit of SADC Heads of State and Government when Malawi took over the chairmanship of SADC from Mozambique, the 16 SADC Member States were represented at the Summit which was being held in a blended format with 30 percent physical presence and 70 percent virtual, to curtail the spread of COVID-19.
President Chakwera told the SADC leaders that years of progress in attaining regional integration is being stalled by the pandemic.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is a Regional Economic Community comprising 16 Member States; Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, United Republic Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
It’s mission is to promote sustainable and equitable economic growth and socio-economic development through efficient, productive systems, deeper cooperation and integration, good governance and durable peace and security.
Also read https://www.kbc.co.ke/drc-officially-joins-east-african-community/
https://www.kbc.co.ke/democratic-republic-of-congo-officially-admitted-to-eac/
