FOCUS ON Sadc SUMMIT 2024

ZIMBABWE will host the Sadc Summit in August under the theme: “Promoting Innovation to Unlock Opportunities for Sustainable Economic Growth and Development Towards an Industrialised Sadc.”

Upon hosting the Summit, President Mnangagwa will assume the chairmanship of the bloc.
The 44th Summit of Heads of State will be hosted at the New Parliament Building in the New City at Mt. Hampden.

As part of the build-up towards this strategic regional grouping event, Sunday News will be carrying articles as part of updating our readers and keeping them abreast on what is happening in the run-up to and during the Summit. This week we look at Malawi and Madagascar.

Sadc in Brief
Sadc is an organisation of 16 Member States established in 1980 as the Southern African Development Co-ordinating Conference (Sadcc) and later, in August,1992 transformed into the Southern African Development Community (Sadc).

The mission of Sadc is to promote sustainable and equitable economic growth and socio-economic development through efficient, productive systems, deeper co-operation and integration, good governance and durable peace and security; so that the region emerges as a competitive and effective player in international relations and the world economy.

Sadc Member States are Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

MALAWI is a founding member of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and joined the regional bloc at its formation as the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference (Sadcc) in Lusaka, Zambia, in April 1980.

Malawi is a landlocked country located in southern central Africa along the western part of the Great Rift Valley of Africa. Malawi is bordered by the United Republic of Tanzania to the north and north east, Mozambique to the east, south and south west and Zambia to the west.

The country’s main ethnic groups are the Chewa, Tumbuka, Yao and Ngoni. English is the official and business language in Malawi, with Chichewa being the national language, which is widely spoken throughout the country, along with Chitumbuka, the dominant language in the northern region.

The country gained independence in 1964 and became a Republic within the British Commonwealth. In 1994, Malawi became a multi-party democracy, with the President being the Head of State.

Malawi is endowed with spectacular highlands and extensive lakes. It occupies a narrow, curving strip of land along the East African Rift Valley. Lake Nyasa, known in Malawi as Lake Malawi, accounts for more than one-fifth of the country’s total area.

Most of Malawi’s population engages in cash-crop and subsistence agriculture. The country’s exports consist of the produce of both small landholdings and large tea and tobacco estates. Malawi has received a significant amount of foreign capital in the form of development aid, which has contributed greatly toward the exploitation of its natural resources and has allowed Malawi to at times produce a food surplus.

Capital City: Lilongwe
Area of Country: 118  484 km²
Currency: Malawi Kwacha (MWK ) 1 MK= 100 tambala
Head of State: HE Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera
Independence Day: 6 July 1964
Official Languages: English, Chichewa
Population: 20,2 million

Natural Resources: Tobacco, Sugar, Tea, Cotton, Groundnuts, Coffee, Fish and Wildlife
A significant number of Malawians reside in rural locations. The country’s few large urban centres include Lilongwe, the capital and Blantyre, the seat of the country’s judiciary.

Climate
There are two main seasons — the dry season, which lasts from May to October and the wet season, which lasts from November to April. Temperatures vary seasonally and tend to decrease on average with increasing elevation. On the Nyika Plateau and on the upper levels of the Mulanje massif, frosts are not uncommon in July. Annual precipitation levels are highest over parts of the northern highlands and on the Sapitwa peak of the Mulanje massif, where they are about 2  300 mm; they are lowest in the lower Shire valley, where they range from 650 to 900 mm.

People
Ten major ethnic groups are historically associated with modern Malawi – the Chewa, Nyanja, Lomwe, Yao, Tumbuka, Sena, Tonga, Ngoni, Ngonde and the Lambya/Nyiha. All the African languages spoken are Bantu languages. From 1968 to 1994, Chewa was the only national language; it is now one of the numerous languages used in print and broadcast media and is spoken by a majority of the population.

In 1996, government policy indicated that education in grades one to four would be provided in the students’ mother tongue or vernacular language; from grade five, the medium of instruction would be English, which, though understood by less than one-fifth of the population at independence in 1964, continues to be used widely in business, administrative and judicial matters, higher education and elsewhere. Other major languages include Lomwe, Yao and Tumbuka.

Some three-fourths of the population is Christian, of which the majority are members of independent Christian or various Protestant denominations and the remainder are Roman Catholic. Muslims constitute about one-fifth of the population.

Economy
The backbone of the Malawi economy is agriculture, which in the 2000s employed more than four-fifths of the working population and accounted for about one-third of the gross domestic product (GDP) and the vast majority of export earnings. Tobacco, the most important export crop, accounts for a major portion of the country’s trade income; tea, sugar and cotton – all mostly grown in the estate sector – are also important.

Since the mid-1960s the government has sought to strengthen the agricultural sector by encouraging integrated land use, higher crop yields and irrigation schemes. In pursuit of these goals, several large-scale integrated rural-development programs, covering one-fifth of the country’s land area, have been put into operation. These projects include extension services; credit and marketing facilities; physical infrastructure such as roads, buildings and water supplies; health centres; afforestation units; and crop storage and protection facilities. Outside the main program areas, advisory services and educational programs are available.

Agricultural products constitute a large proportion of Malawian export revenue; the most important of these are tobacco, sugar, tea and cotton. Tea is grown on plantations on the Shire Highlands; coffee is produced mostly in the Shire Highlands and in northern Malawi, especially in the north-eastern Viphya Mountains and near Rumphi and Misuku.

Tobacco, by far the most important export, is raised largely on the central plateau on large estates and by smallholders in various parts of the country. With the rise of worldwide campaigns against smoking, however, farmers have been increasingly encouraged to diversify so as not to be wholly dependent on tobacco.

Corn (maize) is the principal food crop and is typically grown with beans, peas and peanuts (groundnuts) throughout the country by virtually all smallholders. Other important food crops include cassava (manioc), bananas, pulses, sweet potatoes and rice; chickens, cattle, pigs, sheep and goats are raised.

Fishing is practiced for subsistence as well as by artisanal and commercial fisheries. The lakes and rivers of Malawi provide a diverse catch. Lake Malawi in particular is a rich source of fish within easy access for most of the country’s population and accounts for some three-fourths of the country’s catch. Other important sources include Lakes Chilwa, Malombe and Chiuta and the Shire River. Although aquaculture is practiced, much of the country’s total catch is obtained by capture, with artisanal fisheries accounting for the greatest proportion of that take. Some fish are exported to neighbouring countries.

Since the late 20th century, the fish population has dwindled because of overfishing, the use of nets with a mesh size smaller than those recommended by fisheries experts and the disregard of the ban on fishing in the breeding season. In response, natural resources committees have been formed in lakeshore communities to participate in the management of fisheries and the enforcement of fishing regulations.

Most of Malawi’s mineral deposits are neither extensive enough for commercial exploitation nor easily accessible. Some small-scale mining of coal takes place at Livingstonia and Rumphi in the north and quarrying of limestone for cement production is also an important activity. Precious and semiprecious stones are mined on a small scale; these include agate, aquamarine, amethyst, garnet, corundum, rubies and sapphires. Exploration and assessment studies continue on other minerals such as apatite, located south of Lake Chilwa; bauxite, on the Mulanje massif; kyanite, on the Dedza-Kirk range; vermiculite, south of Lake Malawi near Ntcheu; and rare-earth minerals, at Mount Kangankunde northwest of Zomba.

Deposits of asbestos, uranium and graphite are known to exist as well. Also under investigation are base metals, gold rutile, and ilmenite sands.
Malawi’s small industrial sector is geared largely to processing agricultural products and to the manufacture of import substitutes (goods produced locally, often from imported materials, meant to replace products that were once purchased from abroad); construction and mining (mainly lime for cement and some coal) are also pursued. Although only a fraction of the workforce is employed in the sector, it accounts for some one-fifth of the Malawian GDP.

Development of the country’s industrial base was accorded high priority at independence and Malawi now satisfies much of its own domestic need for products such as cotton textiles, canned foodstuffs, beer, edible oils, soaps, sugar, radios, hoes and shoes. However, the cost of machinery parts, equipment and other imports needed for use in industry has made some of the locally manufactured items particularly expensive. Furthermore, an easing of import restrictions has led to an influx of cheaper goods, which have effectively competed against local products. The textile industry has particularly suffered from imported second-hand clothes, which many Malawians find more affordable than those produced domestically.

The Reserve Bank of Malawi is the central bank of the country; it issues the national currency, the Malawian kwacha, and advises the government on monetary policy.

Politics
Malawi is a multi-party republic. Its original constitution of 1966 was replaced with a provisional constitution in 1994, which was officially promulgated in 1995 and has since been amended. It provides for a President, who is limited to serving no more than two five-year terms and up to two Vice-Presidents, all of whom are elected by universal suffrage. The President serves as head of state and government. The Cabinet is appointed by the President.

The legislature, the National Assembly, is unicameral; its members also are elected by universal suffrage and serve five-year terms. The 1995 constitution also provided for the creation of an upper legislative chamber, but it was not established by the target completion date in 1999; a proposal to cancel plans for the creation of such a chamber was passed by the National Assembly in 2001.

Malawi was a de facto one-party state from August 1961, when the first general elections were held, until 1966, when the constitution formally recognised the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), as the sole political organisation. The 1966 constitution was amended in 1993 to allow for a multiparty political system, and since then several other political parties have emerged, with the United Democratic Front (UDF) quickly becoming one of the most prominent.

Under the constitution, all individuals are permitted the right to participate in the political process, including the right to stand for public office. There is universal suffrage for citizens aged 18 and older. Women have held some positions in the National Assembly, the cabinet, and the judiciary, and members of minority groups also participate in Malawian political life.

MADAGASCAR is the fourth largest island in the world, after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo.
Although located some 400 km from the African continent, Madagascar’s population is primarily related not to African people but rather to those of Indonesia, more than 4 800 km to the east. Madagascar is a member of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc).

Although the coastlands have been known to Europeans for more than 400 years and to Arabs for much longer, recent historical development has been more intense and concentrated in the central plateau, which contains the capital city of Antananarivo (formerly Tananarive).

President: Andry Rajoelina
Capital: Antananarivo
Area: 587 041 square kilometres
Official languages: Malagasy, French
Currency: Malagasy Ariary
Population: 29,61 million
Climate

The hot, wet season extends from November to April and the cooler, drier season from May to October. The climate is governed by the combined effects of the moisture-bearing southeast trade and north-west monsoon winds as they blow across the central plateau. The trade winds, which blow throughout the year, are strongest from May to October.

The east coast is to the windward and has a high annual rate of precipitation, reaching nearly 3 800 mm at Maroantsetra on the Bay of Antongil. As the winds cross the plateau, they lose much of their humidity, causing only drizzle and mists on the plateau itself and leaving the west in a dry rain shadow. The southwest in particular is almost desert, with the dryness aggravated by a cold offshore current.

The monsoon, bringing rain to the north-west coast of Madagascar and the plateau, is most noticeable during the hot, humid season. The wind blows obliquely onto the west coast, which receives a moderate amount of precipitation annually; the southwest, which is protected, remains arid.

Much of the island was once covered with evergreen and deciduous forest, but little now remains except on the eastern escarpment and in scattered pockets in the west. The plateau is particularly denuded and suffers seriously from erosion. The forest has been cut in order to clear rice fields, to obtain fuel and building materials and to export valuable timber such as ebony, rosewood and sandalwood. About seven-eighths of the island is covered with prairie grasses and bamboo or small thin trees.

People
Madagascar has been inhabited by human beings for the relatively short period of about 1 300 years. Language and culture point unequivocally to Indonesian origins, but there is no empirical evidence of how, why, or by what route the first settlers came to the island. Although studies of the winds and currents of the Indian Ocean indicate that the voyage from Indonesia could have been made, there is considerable controversy about the nature of the journey.

Some scholars argue that the first settlers came directly from Indonesia, possibly in a single voyage,and that the African elements found in the population and its culture were added later, as the result of migration and the slave trade. Others suggest that the peopling of the island was the result of several voyages that proceeded along the coast of India, the Arabian Peninsula and Africa and that the population that settled the island was already mixed.

There is also widespread evidence – from linguistics, archaeology and tradition – of influence from Afro-Arab settlers on the coasts before 1000 CE. There is slighter evidence of an Indian influence in vocabulary, but there is no trace of Hinduism in Malagasy culture. Evidence of Sunni Islam appears only in later coastal settlements.

More than nine-tenths of the population is Malagasy, which is divided into about 20 ethnic groups. The largest and most dominant of the groups is the Merina people, who are scattered throughout the island. The name Merina (Imerina) is said to mean Elevated People, deriving from the fact that they lived on the plateau. The second largest group is the Betsimisaraka (The Inseparable Multitude), who live generally in the east.

Most inhabitants of Madagascar speak Malagasy, the national language, which is written in the Latin alphabet. Although Madagascar is located geographically close to Bantu-speaking Africa, Malagasy is a standardised version of Merina, an Austronesian language. Nevertheless, there are a number of Bantu words in the language, as well as some phonetic and grammatical modifiers of Bantu origin. There exist numerous local variations of Malagasy, all of which are mutually intelligible and Bantu elements, which exist in every dialect, appear to have been established for some time.

French is also widely spoken and is officially recognised. It is used as a medium of instruction, especially in the upper grade levels, as is Malagasy. English is also spoken and its use has increased. Comorian is spoken among a sizable community of immigrants from Comoros.

Some two-fifths of the population practices traditional religion, which is based upon ancestor worship. The dead are buried in tombs and are believed to reward or punish the living. There is a supreme being called Zanahary (the Creator) or Andriamanitra (the Fragrant One). There is also a belief in local spirits and a complex system of taboos constrains traditional Malagasy life.

Economy
Before 1972, the government had established producers’ co-operatives, which collected and processed most of the rice crop (at prices that were bitterly resented by the peasants); state farms, intended to increase the commercial production of rice, cattle, coffee, oil palm, cotton and silk; a rural development program; and a national consumers’ co-operative with retail shops located in most towns.

The control of Madagascar’s economy by France, which had received nearly half of the island’s exports and supplied more than half of its imports, ended with the changes in government that occurred during the turbulent years of 1972-75. Whereas currency, banking, finance, loans and economic planning had been influenced by accords with France and by French personnel in government, commerce and technical assistance, the emergent military regime replaced the already constrained free-trade economy with one whose goal was to achieve “a socialist paradise under divine protection” by the year 2000.

Nationalisation made state corporations out of foreign firms, transforming the five French banks into three state banks for agriculture, industry and trade. In addition, foreign insurance companies were converted into two state insurance corporations and state monopolies were formed for import-export trading and shipping and for the textile, cotton and power industries, as well as for the new agencies created for the extension of irrigation.

Rice occupies the largest share of total crop acreage. Many varieties of dry, wet and irrigated rice are grown in the central plateau; dry rice is also grown in the eastern forests and wet rice in the lower river valleys and along the estuaries, mainly by populations who migrated from overpopulated parts of the plateau. Costly imports are still required.

Slash-and-burn techniques are used in the escarpment forest and along the east coast for temporary clearance of land for agriculture. In the river valleys of the west, cultivation is permanent; irrigation techniques are heavily utilised.

Sugarcane is grown on plantations in the north-west, around Mahajanga and on the east coast near Toamasina. Cassava (manioc) is a staple grown all over the island and potatoes and yams are cultivated mainly in the highland region of Ankaratra. Bananas are produced commercially on the east coast and corn (maize) is grown mainly on the central plateau, in the south and in the west. Fruits grown include apples, grapefruits, avocados, plums, grapes, oranges, litchis, pineapples, guavas, papayas, passion fruits and bananas. Robusta coffee is grown on the east coast and arabica coffee on the plateau. Other significant crops are beans, peanuts (groundnuts), pois du cap (lima beans), coconuts, pepper, vanilla, cacao, sisal, raffia, tobacco, copra, cotton and castor beans.

Cattle (mainly zebu) are distributed throughout the island. Large numbers of pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys are found mainly on the plateau.

Madagascar’s waters are rich in marine wildlife, including a variety of fish, shellfish, and crustaceans.
The country’s industrialised fisheries sector has experienced great expansion, and the export of shrimp and prawns in particular provides a significant source of revenue. Illegal fishing remains problematic, however, and Madagascar largely lacks the resources to combat the issue. Overfishing also threatens the sector, although fish farming – especially along the western coast – has been increasingly developed as an alternative. There is considerable raising of fish in the irrigated rice fields, mainly for home consumption.

Considerable small-scale gold mining was conducted toward the end of the 19th century, by both French and Malagasy prospectors; those who hoped to discover precious metals in large quantities there, however, were largely disappointed. There is a wide variety of gems and semiprecious stones, including garnet, amethyst, tourmaline, and beryl, and the discovery of sapphires in Madagascar in the late 1990s was especially significant: by the beginning of the 21st century, about half of the world’s sapphires were mined in Madagascar.

Mineral deposits include chromite, which is found north of Antananarivo and in the southeast at Ranomena; ilmenite (titanium ore), found on the southeast coast at Tôlan?aro, a source thought to represent one of the world’s largest reserves of titanium; low-grade iron ore, found in scattered deposits in the southern half of the island; and low-grade coal, north of Toliara and inland from Besalampy. Nickel and cobalt are mined at Toamasina; the mine, opened in 2007, is among the largest in the world. Nickel is also extracted near Fianarantsoa. Copper is mined north of Ampanihy and near Ambilobe.

Madagascar also contains smaller deposits of zircon, monazite, bauxite, lead, graphite, quartzite, jasper, gold, uranothorianite, bentonite, kaolin, columbite, and alunite.

Hydroelectric power stations provide more than two-thirds of the country’s electricity requirements; the remainder is supplied by coal-burning thermal stations. Many mines and factories also generate their own electricity with diesel or steam-powered generators. Bituminous shales have been discovered at Bemolanga, oil at Tsimiroro, and natural gas off the coast of Morondava.

The country’s manufacturing industry processes products such as textiles and footwear, wood, paper pulp, fertiliser, oils, soap, sugar, cigarettes and tobacco, beer, cement, and foods and beverages. Industrial centres are located mainly in and around Antananarivo, Antsirabe, and Toamasina. Merina jewellers polish and set semiprecious stones at small workshops in most of the towns of the plateau.

The official currency is the ariary, which replaced the Malagasy franc in 2003. Prior to that, the Malagasy franc had replaced the CFA (Communauté Financière Africaine) franc in 1963, and Madagascar was a member of the Franc Zone until 1973. The Central Bank issues all currency.

Politics
Madagascar’s presidential election held on 25 October, 2013, saw more than 30 candidates vying for the presidency. Richard Jean-Louis Robinson, supported by Ravalomanana, and Hery Martial Rakotoarimanana Rajaonarimampianina, seen as an ally of Andry Rajoelina, received the most votes – about 21 percent and 16 percent, respectively – and they advanced to a runoff election held on 20 December, 2013. Voting was relatively peaceful, and international observers did not note any significant problems. Provisional results, released in early January 2014, showed that Rajaonarimampianina was the winner, with 53,5 percent of the vote.

Even before the results were released, however, Robinson and others voiced allegations of fraud and filed numerous complaints with the electoral court. Later that month the electoral court upheld the provisional results, declaring Rajaonarimampianina the president-elect. He was inaugurated on January 25, 2014. With Rajaonarimampianina’s inauguration signifying a return of constitutional order in Madagascar, the African Union and Sadc lifted their suspensions of the country in the following days.

Rajaonarimampianina’s popularity with lawmakers dwindled by early 2015, and there was also an apparent split between the president and Rajoelina and his supporters. In late May, Malagasy lawmakers in the National Assembly voted in favour of impeaching Rajaonarimampianina. The legislature’s impeachment request was then subject to being ruled upon by the country’s High Constitutional Court, which in June ruled against it, stating that the request was unfounded.

The return to constitutional order in 2014 led to a resumption of economic aid, and the country’s economy experienced some growth under Rajaonarimampianina. In spite of that, however, the general Malagasy population did not see economic relief, which was a source of tension. Presidential elections were slated for November 2018 where President Rajoelina emerged as the winner – brittanica.com