Extra-Ordinary Summit of SADC Heads of State and Government
JOHANNESBURG - International summits have to result in change instead of being expensive talk shops.
That's the view of International Relations expert Professor Anthoni van Nieuwkerk.
As the SADC summit gets under way in Durban, Van Nieuwerk said the regional body should strengthen the spirit of cooperation between its member states.
"We were united as a region when we fought apartheid and colonialism, which brought independence to South Africa, to Namibia, and so on. We've lost that energy and that momentum and we have to recreate that.
“It cannot be that only heads of state, presidents, and prime ministers represent 350 million people in Southern Africa. There's a crisis in Zambia with the election. There's election violence. It happened last year in Mozambique.
“It happened the year before in Tanzania. There's a military coup in Madagascar. We have problems elsewhere in the region. Now, I don't think politicians have all the answers and heads of state, when they talk to each other, they take the blue lights, they go to a VIP venue in Durban in this case, and they talk to each other as friends. That is not going to solve the deeper problems that we face in the region."