SADC talks bridges while borders burn with xenophobia claims | The Citizen

March and March Movement members protest outside the Durban International Convention Centre (ICC) under the theme “It’s Time to Fetch Your People” while the 46th Southern African Development Community (SADC) Summit is underway in Durban, on August 17, 2026. The Movement called on regional African heads of states to prepare what it describes as the mass deportation of undocumented foreign nationals from South Africa by September 30 2026. (Photo by RAJESH JANTILAL / AFP)

If there is one institution, apart from the African Union, which sums up the ability of our continent’s leaders to spew great volumes of hot air and achieve next to nothing, then it must be the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Established in 1981 to reduce reliance on “apartheid South Africa” by the Frontline States, the organisation not only failed in that objective, but dependence on Pretoria had actually increased markedly by the time of this country’s 1994 democratic elections.

Thus, when President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses SADC heads of state and paints pictures of an integrated, cooperative community, he is light years away from speaking about a southern African equivalent of the European Union (EU).

Speaking about turning borders into bridges deftly ignores the elephant in the room: that our neighbours believe we’re xenophobic… with good reason, after tens of thousands of their citizens were kicked out of South Africa in the days and weeks following the March and March protests.

That elephant in the room, by the way, was birthed by Ramaphosa’s ANC, which blithely ignored immigration control for decades…

There are other practicalities – apart from the fact that our neighbours don’t fancy SA playing an American-like “baas” role on the continent.

One of those is the crumbling of South Africa’s rail and port infrastructure which could, and should, be the backbone of any southern African economic integration.

Other neighbours have already realised that and are making their own plans to move their imports and exports through Angola, Mozambique and Tanzania ports.

In the end, SADC exists as a place for retired revolutionaries to pat each other on the back – as Ramaphosa did with Zimbabwe dictator Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday – and dream of rivalling the EU.

It matters little that their people wallow in poverty. That, at least, has been successfully integrated into their lives.