South African Development Community SADC

Members:

Angola, Botswana, DR Congo,
Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius,
Mosambique, Namibia,
South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania
Zambia, Zimbabwe

The first steps into the foundation of this community date back to the Lusaka conference on the 1.04.1980, and on the 17.08.1992 the treaty was signed in its final form in Windhoek, Namibia by the heads of state. Originally one of the aims of the SADC was to create a balance to the that time ruling regime of Apartheid in South Africa. After the change of government in South Africa this country became itself a member and one of the driving forces of this community. The final goals of this cooperation are the coordination and combination of development activities to increase the standards of living, reduction of unemployment and poverty and to increase the political stability of the region under consideration of human rights, international standards of law and democracy. It is remarkable, that the SADC did not appear in any way in the obvious crisis in its member state Zimbabwe. Also in the frequent issues of the SADC News, that can be downloaded from the homepage of the SADC, the obviously strange situation in this country is not mentioned with a single word, which on the other hand might be due to the fact, that the SADC News are issued in Harare.
The Seychelles are due to the recession in the tourism industry not on track with their member fees to the SADC and announced already their withdrawal from the SADC effective from June 2004.