A digital copy of the Business News 24 (07 January 2015 edition). Zimbabwe's premier business news free sheet published by the Zimpapers Newspapers Group (1980) Limited and available every week day from 1530hrs to give a summary of the day's business news.

1. News Update as @ 1530 hours, Wednesday 7 January 2015
Feedback: bh24admin@zimpapers.co.zwEmail: bh24feedback@zimpapers.co.zw
Zimbabwe's minerals export earnings decline
ByRumbidzayiZinyuke
Zimbabwe’s diamond export earnings
for the month of November went down
58,4 percent in November to $6,6 mil-
lion from $16 million in October, figures
from Zimstats have shown.
Unsorted diamonds worth $14,2
million were exported in the period,
down from $18 million exported in the
month of October. Industrial diamonds
worth $7,5 million were exported, up
from $1,6 million worth of diamonds
exported in October.
Therewerenoexportsofnon-industrial
diamonds in the review period.
According to Zimstat, cumulative dia-
mond exports in the 11 months to
November 2014 totaled $207 million.
The diamond industry grew signifi-
cantly between 2009 and 2012. How-
ever, export sales have been falling
over the past 2 years due to a decline
in production with sales falling by about
39 percent in 2013.
Government last year scraped royalties
and value added tax from diamonds
that are cut and polished by local com-
panies as part of measures to promote
local value addition and beneficiation
as well as employment creation in line
with ZimAsset.
This is also expected to significantly
grow earnings from polished diamond
sales as the country has been earning
less for raw diamonds.
Figures from ZimStats also showed
that gold exports in the month of
November went down 23 percent at
$46millionfrom$59,3millionrecorded
in October.
In the 11 months to November, cumu-
lative gold export earnings stood at
$496 million.
Gold deliveries have been increasing
since the re-opening of Fidelity Printers
and Refiners in 2013 paving the way
for the country’s readmission to the
London Bullion Market Association.
Platinum exports in the period under
review totaled $9,2 million down from
$13,5 million recorded in October.
Cumulatively platinum exports brought
in $125 million in the eleven months to
November.
This could be attributed to the decline
in production which resulted from the
collapse of Zimplats’ Bimha mine in
August last year leading to its closure.
•

2. By Funny Hudzerema
The Netherlands government has
extended $100 000 to Zimbabwe
towards its participation at the Vakan-
tibeurs Travel Fair and Roadshows Pro-
gram
The aim is to boost Zimbabwe's lost
market share in the Benelux region.
The Vakantibeurs fair will run from
January 11 to 1, 2015 while the road-
shows will run from January 19 to the
26th in Netherlands.
Vakantibeurs Travel Fair and Road-
shows Program is an annual fair held
in the Netherlands to market tourism
products in the Benelux region which
comprises countries such as Belgium,
Netherlands and Luxemburg.
Speaking at a press conference today
Minister of Tourism and Hospitality
Industry Engineer Walter Muzembi has
said stakeholders in the tourism sector
must take this advantage to market its
products competitively to increase the
number of arrivals from the Benelux
region.
“Pricing is the key feature in rebrand-
ing Zimbabwe for the country to be
competitive in its products and to being
viewedasasafedestinationtovisitand
spend holidays.
“It is imperative for Zimbabwe to
employ aggressive marketing strate-
gies to re-gain the lost market share
and we have to enhance our marketing
drive,” he said.
Headdedthatgovernmentmustrevisit
the pricing of local products to increase
confidence to potential tourists who
wants to visit the country for the coun-
try to fully benefit from the Vakanti-
beurs Travel Fair and Roadshows Pro-
gram.
Currently the Benelux region contrib-
uted a total of 14 000 tourist arrival
in the country annually which have
dropped from 40 000 in 1999.
He also added that countries like Egypt
are benefiting from good pricing which
allows tourists to flock in the country
charging a total of $700 for a five days
holiday which will cater for accommo-
dation, air transport and other facilities.
“This initiative will allow Zimbabwe to
achieve the vision of attaining $5 billion
tourism economy by 2020 by growing
the Benelux market to 50 000 visitors
a year by 2020,” he said.
The Vakantibeurs Travel Fair and Road-
shows Program will allow the Zimba-
bwean Tourism sector to have a stand
in the Benelux to advertise its tour-
ism products and the Roadshows will
increase awareness to tourists who
haven’t visited country.
“The platform will serve as a network-
ing platform for destination Zimbabwe
especially in furthering destination
presence and visibility,” he said.
The Netherlands ambassador to
Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe Gera
Sneller said her country will continue to
support the tourism industry of Zimba-
bwe for the country to be visible and
regain its lost markets.
“Vakantibeurs will help Zimbabwe
unlock various tourism and investment
opportunities from the Benelux mar-
ket,” she said.
She also added that the initiative will
allow Zimbabwe to regain its lost mar-
kets in the west and the European
Union and this will also allow the coun-
try to be back on the tourism map. •
Netherlands assists Zim tourism regain Benelux region market share
2 Tourism
Minister Mzembi

3. BH24 Reporter
AfrAsia Zimbabwe Holdings Limited
(AZHL) has announced the appoint-
ment of Hashmon Matemera as the
managing director for AfrAsia Bank
Zimbabwe Limited (ABZL) with effect
from the beginning of this month.
“We welcome Hashmon to the Group
and look forward to gaining from his
vastbankingexperienceasweendeav-
our to implement various strategies to
steer the Bank forward in our market,”
said AfrAsia Zimbabwe Holdings Ltd
group CEO Lyn Mukonoweshuro.
A holder of a Master of Science (Msc)
in Economics (Zimbabwe), Matemera
has over 17 years banking experience.
Prior to joining AZHL, he held various
executive positions at BancABC Zim-
babwe.
In respect of its banking arm, AZHL
has since embarked on a turn-around
strategy involving key local and inter-
national investors as it moves to
address its liquidity challenges.
In November last year, AZHL — in
which Mauritian’s AfrAsia Bank Limited
(ABL) has a controlling shareholding —
announced plans to raise equity as well
asandprovidingaSeniorSecuredNote
(SSN) to avail immediate liquidity.
In 2011, ABL bought 35 percent in the
then Kingdom Financial Holdings Lim-
ited founded by Nigel Chanakira.
The group was then re-named AfrAsia
Zimbabwe Holdings Limited as ABL
increased its shareholding to over 50
percent last year. •
3 NEWS
AfrAsia Zimbabwe Holdings Ltd appoints Matemera as bank MD
FBC
Leading the Pack
Since 2011
We take pride in not only issuing a
variety of Instant MasterCard Prepaid
cards over the last four years, but the
excellent service our customers have
come to enjoy.
Visit any FBC Bank or your nearest
Zimpost Agent to get your
FBC MasterCard Prepaid Card today.
Mr Matemera

4. BH24

5. 55
BH24

6. Powertel, a subsidiary of state owned
power company, Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply Authority (ZESA) Holdings, has
been unveiled as the southern African
country’s fourth mobile network ser-
vice.
Currently, Zimbabwe, with a popu-
lation of 13 million people, has three
operating mobile phone and internet
service providers. They include the
pan-African giant Econet Wireless,
Telecel and Netone.
“This has always been Powertel’s
objective to offer total telecommunica-
tions solutions to Zimbabwe and Africa
at large,” said Powertel’s marketing
manager, Prosper Mutswiri.
Stoking competition
According to Potraz’s latest data,
Econet Wireless has 8,5 million sub-
scribers, Telecel 2,54 million users and
state-owned NetOne 2,45 million sub-
scribers, meaning the entire population
is roughly accounted for the current
operators.
However Powertel is now set to further
stoke competition within a relatively
small market by becoming its fourth
player. This was made possible after
it was granted a converged telecom-
munications licence by the regulatory
body, Posts and Telecommunication
Regulatory Authority (Potraz), to pro-
vide both voice and internet services in
Zimbabwe.
“To keep up with competition, you also
needtobeinnovativehencewearenot
diversifying as such but we are mov-
ing fast to fulfil the set objectives of the
business as outlined on its formation,”
added Mutswiri. - Ventures Africa •
66 NEWS
Zimbabwe welcomes fourth telecom operator
Zimbabwe said indigenous farmers
settled on land seized from its former
white owners will have to get govern-
ment approval for contracts to produce
crops.
Farmerswillalsohavetopayrenttothe
government for the land they’ve been
allocated, Rural Resettlement Minister
Douglas Mombeshora said today in a
telephone interview from the country’s
capital, Harare. The money raised will
finance a national land audit next year,
said Mombeshora, who denied reports
that the government would allow for-
mer white farmers to lease land from
its new occupants.
“There’s been no u-turn at all,” he said.
“We don’t want to see the former farm-
ers on the ground.”
Mombeshora said the move to control
contract farming was intended to pre-
vent crops being sold to third parties,
a practise known as “side-marketing.”
Farmers in Zimbabwe have tradition-
ally grown crops like barley and seed
cornundercontractforcompaniessuch
as brewer, Delta Corp Ltd., and seed
merchant, Seedco Ltd., while tobacco
traders have also adopted the practise
in the past decade. - Bloomberg •
Zimbabwe plans to control crop-production contracts, levy rents

7. BH24

8. Latest figures show that Zimbabwe's
trade deficit stood at $3 billion by
November last year, and the sad sit-
uation is that the relevant authorities
seem not to have found an effective
solution to this problem that continues
to bludgeon our economy.
Investopedia.com describes a 'trade
deficit' as "an economic measure of a
negative balance of trade in which a
country's imports exceeds its exports."
But critically - and this is particularly
worrisomeforZimbabwe'scurrenteco-
nomic state - a trade deficit represents
an outflow of domestic currency to for-
eign markets.
Economic analyst Gilles Saint-Paul
writing in The Economist says: "trade
deficits are not a problem when they
are the result of temporary imbalances
between investment and savings. For
example, an emerging country may
need to invest a lot in physical capital,
anditmakeslittlesenseforittofinance
thisinvestmentwithareductionincon-
sumption."
But we have to be honest with each
other here and admit that Zimbabwe's
trade deficit is not of the type men-
tioned above.
Ours is a deficit that has basically
resulted from a loss of competitiveness
overtime. And that should spell T-R-O-
U-B-L-E.
Zimbabwe is losing vast amounts
of monies(that is, the multi-curren-
cies that are presently in use) into
the region and internationally, sim-
ply because we are failing to export
enough(whichisratheroddforacoun-
try that has traditionally prided itself in
being a export-oriented economy.
Official figures from the Zimbabwe
National Statistics Agency shows that
imports in the first 11 months of 2014
stood at $5,8 billion while exports
amounted to $2,8 billion.
And strangely enough too, we seen
to be importing extensive amounts of
merchandise imports, the majority of
which are produced right here in Zim-
babwe.
Are imports always better quality? We
think not.
Are imports always more affordable?
Most likely.
The solution then, lies in the relevant
authorities (both in the public and
private sectors) putting in work to
improve the country's industrial capaci-
tiesanddoingbusinessenvironmentso
that, firstly, we have significant levels
and diversity of range of locally man-
ufactured goods to place on the export
market.
Second, if the business operating envi-
ronment is improved significantly, this
will help push down the cost of produc-
tion for local firms, hence the resultant
outputwillbepriceandqualitycompet-
itive in the regional and international
markets.
Achieving competitiveness will also
help the Government achieve a level of
fiscal sustainability. •
8 BH24 COMMENT
Enduring trade deficit needs urgent redress

9. The equities market was down for the
third consecutive day this week as the
industrial index shed 0.10 points to
close at 160.59 points.
Hippo and PPC traded 5 cents lower to
50 cents and 170 cents respectively.
Afdis lost 2 cents to trade at 45 cents,
Meikles shed 0.50 cents to 14 cents
and Masimba dropped 0.30 cents to
settle at 2 cents. On the upside, ZB
Financial Holdings led the movers with
a 2 cent gain to trade at 5.60 cents,
Old Mutual added a cent to trade at
235 cents and Econet was marginally
up by 0.01 cents to close at 60.01
cents.
The mining index was steady at 68.11
points as Bindura, Falgold, Hwange
and RioZim were unchanged at 6
cents, 3 cents, 4.80 cents and 15
cents respectively. ― BH24 Reporter
•
9 ZSE REVIEW
ZSE in third consecutive loss

10. REGIONAL News10
Cell C Pty Ltd., South Africa’s third-larg-
est mobile-phone carrier, plans to tell
regulators at a hearing next week that
its business is threatened by Vodacom
Group Ltd’s proposed acquisition of
Neotel Pty Ltd.
Vodacom is already South Africa’s larg-
est mobile-service provider and its 7 bil-
lion-rand ($600 million) deal to buy the
Internet provider shouldn’t be approved
“because of the detrimental, indeed
fatal, impact that this could have on
competition in the electronic communi-
cations market,” Cell C said in a state-
ment to the Independent Communica-
tions Authority of South Africa.
MTN Group Ltd, Africa’s biggest mobile-
phone company, said in November that
the transaction should be blocked on
competition grounds as it would allow
Vodacom to start a high-speed 4G
mobile network before other operators.
Telkom SA SOC Ltd, the continent’s big-
gest landline provider, said in the same
month that Neotel’s wireless spectrum
should be reallocated to other operators
to prevent the deal causing a “distortion
of the competitive landscape.”
By acquiring Neotel’s customers, fiber
lines and wireless capacity, Vodacom
wouldbecome“asuper-dominantoper-
ator,” hurting competition and making
it uneconomic for new entrants to join
the market, Johannesburg-based Cell C
said in an Oct. 15 statement to regula-
tor Icasa that was seen by Bloomberg
News. The document was verified by
a company representative, who said it
reflects Cell C’s current position.
Vodacom’s competitiveness would be
“unfairly” strengthened by control of
Neotel’s wireless spectrum, so any such
capacity not used by Neotel should be
reallocated to other companies, said
Cell C, which calculated its share of the
mobile market at about 11 percent by
revenue and Vodacom’s at more than
50percent.Vodacomhaddomesticser-
vice revenue of 48.3 billion rand in the
year ending March 31, 2014.
Vodacom would probably force Cell C
and other competitors to stop leasing
capacity on Neotel’s fiber network after
the acquisition, Cell C said.
Icasa will hold a hearing on the deal
on Jan. 15 and 16 in Johannesburg.
Vodacom, which is 65 percent owned
by Newbury, England-based Voda-
fone Group Plc, agreed to buy Neotel
from India's Tata Communications Ltd.
in May to expand its network of high-
speed fiber-optic cable for businesses
and homes. Vodacom’s shares gained 1
percent to 124.72 rand as of 9:05 a.m.
in Johannesburg, valuing the company
at 184 billion rand. - Bloomberg •
Vodacom-Neotel tie-up would be 'super-dominant', Cell C says
South Africa's rand weakens as oil price tumble fuels investor jitters
South Africa's rand weakened against
the U.S. dollar early on Wednesday as
falling global oil prices, down 10 percent
in the past two days, and worries over
global growth prospects soured confi-
dence in emerging market assets.
At 0600 GMT the rand traded at
11.7275 per dollar, 0.11 percent softer
following an overnight close of 11.7150
in New York, the currency failing to con-
firm stops near the 11.6800 resistance
level. Government bonds continued to
be firm as investors sought safer bets
in fixed income, with the yield on the
benchmarkpaperduein2026shedding
3.5basispointstoamonth-lowof7.755
percent.
Russia's rouble led the slide in emerging
market currencies, falling by over 4 per-
cent as the price of brent crude eased
another 17 cents to $50.93 a barrel.
Euro zone inflation data due later in
the session is expected to show a fall in
prices across the region, while a Reu-
ters poll predicts Chinese GDP will slow
to its weakest since 2009, as econo-
mies globally continue to struggle and
fuel uncertainty. Locally, South Africa's
vehicle industry publishes new car sales
dataforDecemberat0900GMT.-Reu-
ters •

11. 11 DIARY OF EVENTS
The black arrow indicate level of load shedding across the country.
POWER GENERATION STATS
Gen Station
6January 14
Energy
(Megawatts)
Hwange 316 MW
Kariba 614 MW
Harare 30 MW
Munyati 25 MW
Bulawayo 26 MW
Imports 30 MW
Total 1041 MW
29 December - Extraordinary General Meeting of the members of Zimplow Holdings Limited; Place: Main
Lounge, Royal Harare Golf Club, 5th Street Extension, Harare; Time: 12:00 hours
12 January 2015 - CBZ Extraordinary General Meeting; Place: CBZ Wealth Management Centre, Pomona;
Time: 08:30am
THE BH24 DIARY

12. 12 zse
ZSE
Movers CHANGE Today Price USc SHAKERS Change TODAY Price USc
ZBFH 55.56 5.60 Masimba -13.04 2.00
Old Mutual 0.43 235.00 Hippo -9.09 50.00
Econet 0.02 60.01 Afdis -4.26 45.00
Meikles -3.45 14.00
PPC -2.86 170.00
Indices
Index Previous Today Move Change
Industrial 160.69 160.59 -0.10 points -0.06%
Mining 68.11 68.11 0.00 points 0.00%
Stocks Exchange

13. 13 AFRICA StockS
Botswana 8,664.65 -11.96 -0.14% 12July
Cote dIvoire 256.50 -1.58 -0.61% 02Jan
Egypt 8,942.65 +16.07 +0.18% 04Jan
Ghana 2,287.32 +26.30 +1.16% 02Jan
Kenya 5,117.43 +4.78 +0.09% 02Jan
Malawi 14,886.12 +0.00 +0.00% 02Jan
Mauritius 6,795.35 +24.31 +0.36% 31Dec
Morocco 9,643.19 +23.08 +0.24% 02Jan
Nigeria 34,657.15 -27.17 -0.08% 31Dec
Rwanda 143.39 +0.20 +0.14% 02Oct
Tanzania 2,602.19 -30.74 -1.17% 28Oct
Tunisia 4,624.39 -39.32 -0.84% 07Mar
Uganda 1,942.77 -12.69 -0.65% 10Dec
Zambia 6,160.66 +12.17 +0.20% 31Dec
Zimbabwe 162.57 -0.22 -0.14% 02Jan
African stock round up Commodity Prices
Name Price
Crude Oil 1,300.91 -0.21%
Spot Gold USD/oz 1,292.63 -0.26%
Spot Silver USD/oz 19.38 -0.46%
Spot Platinum USD/oz 1,421.25 -0.33%
Spot Palladium USD/oz 798.50 -0.64%
LME Copper USD/t 6,770 -0.18%
LME Aluminium USD/t 1,780 -1.17%
LME Nickel USD/t 18,230 -1.73%
LME Lead USD/t 2,095 -1.41%
Quote of the day — "Success is
getting what you want.
Happiness is wanting what
you get." - Dale CarnegieGlobalshareholder.com

14. 14 INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Gold held below a three-week high
after sinking oil prices and equities
spurred the longest run of daily gains
since October as investors awaited
minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last
meeting for guidance on U.S. mone-
tary policy.
Bullion for immediate delivery lost as
much as 0.4 percent to $1,214.17
an ounce, and traded at $1,214.92
at 12:56 p.m. in Singapore, accord-
ing to Bloomberg generic pricing. The
metal rose for a third day yesterday to
$1,223.19, the highest since Dec. 16,
on oil’s rout and concern Greece may
drop the euro.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index
headed for the highest close on record
before today’s release of the minutes
of the Dec. 16-17 meeting, when the
bank said it will be “patient” when
considering the timing of the first rate
increase since 2006. Gold priced in
euros rose to the highest since Sep-
tember 2013 before inflation data that
may prompt the European Central
Bank to start buying sovereign debt.
Global shares lost 3.2 percent this year
as crude oil tumbled to the lowest since
2009.
“Gold continues to benefit from risk
aversion,” said Zou Lihu, an analyst
at Citics Futures Co. in Shenzhen, a
unit of China’s biggest listed broker-
age. “Gold has moved higher despite
the dollar’s strength and while buying
interest has been good, the Fed min-
utes may impede the rally.”
The minutes precede data due Jan. 9
on U.S. payrolls for last month, which
are expected to show employers added
200,000 or more jobs for an 11th
month, according to a Bloomberg sur-
vey. Monthly gains averaged almost
241,000fromJanuarythroughNovem-
ber, up from the prior year’s 194,000.
The 2.7 million workers added to pay-
rolls are the most since 1999.
SPDR Declines
Gold for February delivery slid 0.4
percent to $1,214.90 an ounce on
the Comex in New York, after futures
climbed yesterday to $1,223.30, the
highest price since Dec. 16.
Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the
largest exchange-traded product
backed by bullion, fell yesterday to the
lowest level since September 2008,
after expanding on Jan. 5 for the first
time in two weeks.
Silver for immediate delivery dropped
0.5 percent to $16.4598 an ounce,
after prices advanced yesterday for a
third day, rising to $16.7091, the high-
est level since Dec. 15.
Spot platinum traded at $1,219.63 an
ounce from $1,219.44 yesterday. Pal-
ladium was little changed at $803.45
an ounce. — Bloomberg •
Gold trades below three-week high before Fed releases minutes

15. By Kizito Sikuka
This year has provided an opportunity
for southern Africa to consolidate gains
and make plans to advance broader
socio-economic independence and inte-
gration as a region.
A major milestone for 2014 was the
decisionbythe34thSADCSummitheld
in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe to prioritise
industrialisation in the ongoing review
of regional plans under the Regional
Indicative Strategic Development Plan
(RISDP).
Industrial development has been iden-
tified as one of the main drivers of the
integration agenda in southern Africa as
the region moves away from an eco-
nomic path built on consumption and
commodity exports onto a sustainable
developmental path based on value
addition and beneficiation.
SADC Member States acknowledged
that industrial development is central to
the diversification of their economies;
development of productive capacity;
andthecreationofemploymentinorder
to reduce poverty and set their econo-
mies on a more sustainable growth
path.
However, the RISDP, which is a 15-year
blueprint for SADC regional integra-
tion and development, currently under
review, was previously silent on the
matter. As a result,the SADC Ministerial
Task Force on Regional Integration was
directed by Summit to develop a strat-
egy and roadmap for industrialization in
the region.
In this regard, an Extraordinary SADC
Summit is planned for early 2015 to
discuss industrialization, and ultimately
approve the Revised RISDP.
With regard to infrastructure develop-
ment, the year 2014 saw the vision of
southern Africa as an emerging econ-
omy with infrastructure that works
coast-to-coast, move closer to reality
when the region approved a declaration
that aims to strengthen cooperation in
the development of regional infrastruc-
ture projects.
When regional infrastructure such as
roads,railandenergytransmissionlines
are in good condition, this lays the basis
for numerous other benefits, includ-
ing the smooth movement of goods,
services and people across the region,
thereby increasing intra-regional con-
tacts and trade.
The SADC Declaration on Regional
Infrastructure Development pays par-
ticular attention to the transport needs
of landlocked countries, which, “due to
their geo-political circumstances, have
special needs for transport and transit
servicesandbearhighcostsforcapacity
and access to external markets.”
The declaration builds on the Regional
InfrastructureDevelopmentMasterPlan
that was launched in 2012, targeting a
total of 418 infrastructure projects to be
implemented by 2027.
These cross-border infrastructure
projects cover the priority sectors of
energy, transport, tourism, water, infor-
mation communication technology and
meteorology. On agriculture, SADC
made significant progress towards food
security by approving a regional food
and nutrition strategy to ensure its cit-
izens have access to both adequate and
nutritional foods.
To be implemented from the period
2015-2025, the Regional Food and
NutritionSecurityStrategyaimstoserve
asaregionalmechanismtofacilitatethe
attainment of universal physical, social
andeconomicaccesstosafe,healthand
nutritious food to ensure the wellbeing
of the people of southern Africa.
It is historic that SADC adopted the
strategy in 2014 – a year that was
declared by the African Union as the
Year of Agriculture and Food Security.
The SADC region also witnessed a
major step towards the promotion of
sustainable use and management of
the environment, through the approval
of the Protocol on Environmental Man-
15 analysis
2014 IN RETROSPECT: Driving regional integration
15 analysis

16. agement for Sustainable Development.
Previously, SADC had several protocols
dealing with various aspects of the envi-
ronment, most of which were sectoral
in nature and did not take a holistic
approach towards sustainable use and
management. Therefore, the adoption
of the Protocol is an important step in
the process of harmonizing the laws
that deal with environmental issues.
With regard health, the region inten-
sified preparedness and response to
monitorandpreventthespreadofEbola
– a deadly disease that has affected
parts of West Africa.
Among Member States, only the Dem-
ocratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has
reported Ebola cases, which were
quickly dealt with, while none has been
reported in the other 14 SADC Member
States. However, medical specialists
note that the strain of Ebola in DRC is
different from that in West Africa, and
has not spread from there, but is a sep-
arate strain that appeared in the 1970s.
On the political situation in the region,
southern Africa witnessed positive
developments with five countries hold-
ing national elections — Botswana,
Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique and
South Africa.
In Namibia and Mozambique, these
were transitional elections that pro-
duced new presidents Hage Geingob of
the ruling SWAPO party and Filipe Nyusi
of the FRELIMO respectively, as the pre-
vious Heads of State are standing down
after a fixed term of office. Stability also
returned in Lesotho, with support from
its neighbours in SADC.
Lesotho has experienced some political
challenges that worsened in August in
the wake of the suspension of Parlia-
ment and an alleged coup plot.
SADC,throughitsfacilitatorCyrilRama-
phosa, who is the South African deputy
President, facilitated a dialogue among
Lesotho’s political parties to address the
challenges facing the mountain king-
dom. The stakeholders have agreed to
bring forward the General Elections to
February 2015 from its original date of
2017, on a date to be set by King Letsie
III.
The year 2014 also saw SADC lift its
suspensiononMadagascarfollowingthe
restoration of constitutional order under
a SADC mediation process.
The island nation was suspended from
SADC in 2009 when the country slid
into a political turmoil after the opposi-
tion leader sized power from the then
president. However, noting the pro-
gress in resolving constitutional order in
Madagascar, SADC invited the country
to resume its participation in all SADC
activities. 2014 was mostly stable from
a political perspective with relative
peace in the more unpredictable parts
of the region such as the DRC, although
latest developments in the east of the
country remain a cause for concern.
With regard to trade, SADC together
with other regional economic communi-
ties — the Common Market for Eastern
and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the
East African Community (EAC) moved
closer to signing a historic agreement to
establish an expanded market covering
26 countries.
The agreement will boost intra-regional
trade,increaseinvestmentandpromote
thedevelopmentofcross-regionalinfra-
structure, as the so-called “Grand” Free
Trade Area (FTA) has a combined popu-
lation of some 600 million people and a
Gross Domestic Product of about US$1
trillion, covering half of the member
states of the African Union, spanning
the entire southern and eastern regions
of Africa – from Cape to Cairo.
The Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe became the SADC chair in
2014, taking over from his Malawian
counterpart, President Peter Mutharika,
at the SADC Summit held in August.
MugabewillbedeputizedbyBotswana’s
President Seretse Khama Ian Khama,
and as such the 2015 SADC Summit
will be held in Botswana.
Presidents Armando Guebuza of
Mozambique and Hifikepunye Pohamba
of Namibia also bid farewell as southern
African leaders at the SADC Summit.
Both leaders are serving their sec-
ond and last terms in office as per
their national constitutions, have been
instrumental in pushing the regional
integration agenda forward, and are
firm believers in the notion that SADC
member states have a lot to gain from
working together. - Sardc.net •
16 analysis16 analysis