SADC AND HUMAN SECURITY

Abstract

Most sub-Saharan countries possess limited development and economic potential1 because they are very poorly endowed with human and physical capital.2 Their plight is exacerbated because they are either denied much-needed investment owing to their small market size3 or because they are taken advantage of by foreign investors owing to their unequal bargaining power.4 Such countries are therefore caught in a vicious circle whereby poverty leads to an inability to access foreign investment, which only leads to further poverty. To overcome these difficulties and break the circle, regional integration has been pursued as the means for creating larger markets and consolidating the resources and potential of these poor economies.5 Such larger markets are expected to create greater economies of scale which will then attract investment and improve the development and economic potential of the countries concerned.6 In recognition of the limited capability of their individual economies,7 governments of the nine independent states of Southern Africa8 decided in 1980 to utilise their unity and proximity for two basic objectives: first, the joint co-operation for the sustainable social and economic development of their peoples and the economies of the nine states as a whole; and second, the economic liberation of the member states from historical domination in the region by the then apartheid South Africa.9 The institution that was born out of this initiative was called the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference (SADCC) and was a somewhat loose arrangement with no formal treaty being signed to formalise the institutions of the co-ordinating conference.10 However, it soon became apparent that the loose institutional framework adopted by SADCC would significantly constrain the achievement of the aims and objectives of the organisation.11 This weakness, coupled with significant competition from other more organised integration arrangements in Southern Africa12 and the imminent democratisation of South Africa, necessitated a reconstitution of the co-operation initiative. The reorganisation of SADCC into the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was achieved by way of a declaration and treaty (the SADC Treaty) which was signed in Namibia in 1992.13 With the signing of the SADC Treaty, the regional integration initiative metamorphosed from a co-ordinating conference into a development community. From the original 10 countries that signed the SADC Treaty, the organisation’s membership has expanded to 14 nations which now include Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, SADC AND HUMAN SECURITY Fitting human rights into the trade matrix