DRC impasse dominates SADC proceedings

SADC will be sending a former head of state to the DRC as a special envoy amid increasing tensions in that country due to overdue elections. There were still consultations 'aimed at finalising this matter'. President Jacob Zuma, who assumed the SADC chairpersonship at this weekend’s summit, said in his closing address yesterday that the summit has also urged the DRC's Independent National Electoral Commission to publicise the revised electoral calendar. A report on the News24 site notes that the security situation in the DRC has become increasingly fraught after a December deadline for elections was missed and a peace agreement brokered by the Catholic Church in December fell apart. The summit also bade farewell to Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos, who is set to step down later following elections this month after almost three decades in power, and Botswana President Ian Khama, who is set to finish his term next year before the next summit in Namibia. The summit also agreed to admit Comoros as the 16th member state of SADC, while the application by Burundi to join was described as 'work in progress'. In other developments, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said that his party would not meet with Zambian leader Edgar Lungu until he commits to democracy. Maimane said this after Lungu on Saturday ‘summoned’ the DA and the EFF to explain their concerns about Zambia to him. In a statement by the Zambian High Commission issued before the start of the summit, Lungu expressed ‘concern that the two opposition parties appeared to disrespect the sovereignty of Zambia and had interfered with the domestic affairs of countries like Zambia, Swaziland, Lesotho and Zimbabwe’.