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SADC Today Volume 11 No.1, August 2008
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THREE REGIONAL economic blocs have
made a giant step towards the long-conceived
goal of an African Economic Community,
approving the expeditious establishment of an
enlarged Free Trade Area (FTA) encompassing
26 Member States in three sub-regions.
Meeting at a Tripartite Summit on 22
October in Kampala, Uganda, leaders of
Member States of SADC, the Common Market
for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
and the East African Community (EAC) agreed
on what many have described as an important
milestone towards continental integration as
envisaged by the African Union (AU).
According to the final communiqué, the
historic Tripartite Summit "agreed on a programme
of harmonization of trading arrangements amongst the three RECs
[Regional Economic Communities], free
movement of business persons, joint implementation
of inter-regional infrastructure
programmes as well as institutional arrangements
on the basis of which the three RECs
would foster cooperation."
THE FOURTH president of the
Republic of Zambia, Rupiah
Banda, is a veteran politician
who has been in the public service
for more than 50 years.
Born on 19 February 1937,
Banda was among a group of
young leaders of the United
National Independence Party
(UNIP) who won Zambia's independence
in October 1964,
under the leadership of Kenneth
Kaunda.
At the age of 27, he became
Zambia's first ambassador to
Egypt. It was a significant posting
as Cairo was an important
African capital during the leadership
of Gamal Abdel Nasser,
who was a key supporter of
independence struggles in
Zambia and the region.
COUNTRY REPRESENTATIVES
attending the
20th Session of the African
Hydro Symposium held in
Zambia have called for
African governments to
harness its huge hydroenergy
potential, as it is
cheap and clean.
According to Lawrence
Musaba, the Coordination
Centre Manager for the
Southern African Power
Pool (SAPP), Africa has a
combined feasible hydrocapacity
of more than
1,750,000 gigawatts (GW)
per year, enough to power
the whole continent but
unfortunately, only 4.3
percent of this is being
exploited.
This article may be reproduced with credit to the author and publisher.
SADC TODAY, SARDC, P.O Box 5690, Harare, Zimbabwe.
E-mail: sadctoday@sardc.net
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