Eight presidents have confirmed they will attend the 43rd Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Thursday, August 17.
The summit will be held in Angola’s capital, Luanda.
The presidents who have confirmed their attendance are Hage Geingob of Namibia, Felix Tshisekedi (Democratic Republic of Congo), Hakainde Hichilema (Zambia), Lazarus Chakwera (Malawi), Filipe Nyusi (Mozambique), Mokgweetsi Masisi (Botswana), Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa) and the host president, Joao Lourenco of Angola.
Lesotho will be represented by its Prime Minister Sam Matekane, while Seychelles will be represented by Vice President Ahmed Afif.
Comoros, Madagascar sanctioned
Comoros and Madagascar will not be represented at the meeting because the two nations are facing sanctions for non-compliance with the payment of annual fees, Angola’s Secretary for SADC said in a statement on Saturday.
The theme of this year’s one-day convention will be “Human and financial capital: The main factors for sustainable industrialisation in the region of SADC.”
During the meeting, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will hand over the rotating presidency of SADC to Angola.
Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and Tanzania are the other countries making up the 16-member SADC bloc. It is unclear why the four nations did not confirm their attendance of the Thursday summit.
SADC is headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further regional socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security cooperation among its member states.
