Southern African leaders have extended former Malawi president Joyce Banda’s mandate to lead regional mediation efforts in Madagascar as they push for a return to constitutional rule and democratic elections in the island nation.
The decision follows yesterday’s Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), which considered recommendations from an Extraordinary Organ Troika Summit Second Vice President Enock Chihana chaired last week on behalf of President Peter Mutharika.
Speaking after the summit, Chihana said leaders resolved to continue Banda’s peace mission and establish a Sadc liaison office in Madagascar to support that country’s reform process.
“On 22 June there was a summit of the Troika which the President delegated me to chair and this summit today was built on the report from that Troika Summit on Madagascar,” he said.
Chihana said the regional bloc would continue supporting an inclusive national dialogue aimed at returning Madagascar to constitutional order through free and fair elections within a proposed two-year transition period.
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He identified the inclusion of all political stakeholders as one of the key challenges facing the process.
“There are some opposition leaders who have been arrested and are in prison, and also the president himself is not in the country. The main challenge is to bring them together because Sadc is supporting an inclusive dialogue where every stakeholder should take part,” said Chihana.
In his presentation, Chihana said Sadc was also focused on ensuring that key State institutions and civil society organisations in Madagascar move in the same direction on the reform process, arguing that broad institutional consensus would be crucial to achieving lasting political stability and credible elections.
He further stressed the need for closer coordination among Sadc, the African Union, the United Nations and other international partners to support national consultations and reforms.
Such cooperation, he said, would help mobilise the technical, logistical and financial assistance required to steer Madagascar through the transition process.
On his part, Sadc chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa, who is the President of South Africa, said leaders had reaffirmed their commitment to defending constitutional governance and preventing a recurrence of instability in Madagascar.
He urged Madagascar’s authorities to ensure consultations are representative, transparent and impartial while calling for the release of political prisoners, an end to arbitrary arrests and the return of political exiles.
Earlier, Sadc Executive Secretary Elias Magosi noted that Banda’s panel undertook three missions to Madagascar between January and May this year.
Beyond Madagascar, the summit also discussed the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with leaders warning that the disease poses a serious risk to the region and called for stronger collaboration with the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organisation and other partners.
The leaders further reaffirmed support for African Union-led peace efforts in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo amid ongoing conflict in the region.
Conspicuously absent from the summit agenda was the recent wave of anti-immigrant violence and tensions in South Africa that have sparked concern in several Sadc member States, including Malawi.
The summit brought together Heads of State and Government from the bloc’s 16 member states.
