Pahad casts doubt on SADC economic integration

LEONARD NEILL HOPES THAT the Southern African Development Community (SADC) programme of economic integration would be completed and up and running by 2012 now appear little more than a pipe-dream according to Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad. “I do not believe that if we continue at the pace we are now, the SADC programme can become a reality by then,” he said in Pretoria last week. “I am also doubtful about the SADC’s ability, at its current pace of putting programmes in place, to become an engine for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad).” SADC programmes are taking too long to put into operation, especially in the light of a recent United Nations report which painted a bleak picture of the continent, he said. “Our continent as a whole begins to get poorer than any other continent, and the condition of our people today is worse than 10 years ago. Ways must be found for SADC to function better. For Africa to meet its challenges, we need to strengthen our institutions.”