Dar es
Salaam — President John Magufuli will once again not attend the Southern
African Development Community (Sadc) summit slated for August 30 and 31 in
Mbabane, Swaziland where he was to accept the rotating chairmanship.
His attendance in the Sadc 36th
summit which had been previously confirmed, as announced by the minister for
Foreign Affairs Augustine Mahiga early this month, had been highly anticipated,
according to reports from Mbabane.
He was to be introduced to his
Sadc counterparts and deliver a speech at the summit as well as give a detailed
overview of his vision for regional integration and development.
Instead President Magufuli sent
Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan to represent him. Ms Hassan, who arrived in
Mbabane on Sunday was accompanied by Amb Mahiga, together with Charles Mwijage
minister for Industries, Trade and Investments and Zanzibar Trade minister
Amina Salum Ali.
The
theme for the 36th Sadc Summit is "Resource Mobilisation for Investment in
Sustainable Energy Infrastructure for an Inclusive Sadc Industrialisation for
the Prosperity of the Region."
This is the second Sadc summit
that President Magufulil is skipping. At the June summit in Gabarone President
Magufuli was represented by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa.
The draft summit agenda for
this week's summit shows that Dr Magufuli was to be the only new president to
be welcomed by the 36th Sadc summit. At the last summit, a total of three
presidents - Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique, Hage Geingob of Namibia and Edgar
Lungu of Zambia - delivered maiden speeches.
The theme of the summit
continues the industrialisation trajectory of the last two summits hosted by
Zimbabwe in 2014 and Botswana in 2015, which focused on economic transformation
and sustainable development through beneficiation and value addition, and on
transforming natural resources and human capital to boost sustainable
development respectively.
This year's theme focuses on
how the region could mobilise resources to improve energy infrastructure
development. (Additional reporting by sadc.net)
Source:The
Citizen
JPM Skips Yet Another SADC Meet
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