One of the many “tangible successes” that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has achieved while it was headed up by Tanzania is the easing of border restrictions hampering the flow of goods and the rendering of trade-related services across the sub-Saharan region during Covid-19.
That, at least, is the view of Tanzanian ambassador and brigadier general Wilbert Ibuge who yesterday handed over the reins of the Standing Committee of Senior Officials of the SADC to Alfredo Nuvunga, his ambassadorial counterpart from Mozambique.
The cyber handover of the reins is also not yet over as in a week’s time Tanzania’s President, John Magufuli, will vacate his seat as chairman of the regional bloc for his peer from Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi.
Expect more pomp and ceremony, platitudes, virtual back-slapping and observation of protocol.
And when the Zoom feeds, team meets, webinar links and whatnot have stopped, expect things to return to business as usual for government agents involved with trade – bribery, bottlenecks and backlogs.
Put it this way: try to phone or email anyone at the SADC Secretariat for any help on any given day and prepare yourself for disappointment.
Speaking to those in the corridors of power, one is often left thinking that unless you’re connected, unless you know someone who knows someone, attempts to reach the Secretariat will invariably lead nowhere, resulting in nothing.
Therefore it’s nothing less than a little laughable when someone like Ibuge makes much of two draft documents, the SADC Development Vision 2050, and Regional Indicative Strategy Development Plan (RISDP) 2020-2020, that will be on the agenda again come next year.
This is what he said yesterday: “As we hand over chairmanship, we look forward to the next meeting in March 2021 that Mozambique would lead all member states in formalising these two documents.”
Really?
Is that how you facilitate trade at the time of Covid-19, with borders routinely experiencing bedlam and businesses succumbing to the pressures of a pandemic?
No wonder regional industry concerns and cross-border corridor custodians are giving up on hopes of intra-regional trade facilitation – they have run out of tolerance for bureaucratic blah-blah.
If there’s one thing the coronavirus has done for the world, it is that it has popularised the online function.
No longer do you have to be part of a captive audience in a cold, featureless, conference hall anymore, listening to officials drone on about what they think is important.
You can just turn off your laptop’s video camera and get back to business.
You can even leave the room if you want.