Southern African Development Community
Southern African Development Community (SADC)
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Motto: "Towards a Common Future"
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Anthem: SADC Anthem
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Map of Africa indicating SADC (light green) and SADC+SACU (dark green) members.
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| Headquarters | Gaborone, Botswana | ||||
| Working languages | |||||
| Type | Intergovernmental | ||||
| Membership | |||||
| Leaders | |||||
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• Summit Chairperson
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 Mswati III
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• Council Chairperson
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 Pelonomi Moitoi
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• SADC PF Chairperson
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 Abdool Ameen |
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• Tribunal
President |
Ariranga Pillay
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• Executive Secretary
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 Stergomena Tax
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| Legislature | SADC Parliamentary Forum | ||||
| Establishment | |||||
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• as SADCC
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1 April 1980 | ||||
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• as SADC
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17 August 1992 | ||||
| Area | |||||
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• Total
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9,882,959 km2 (3,815,832 sq mi) | ||||
| Population | |||||
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• Estimate
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277 million | ||||
| GDP (PPP) | 2013 estimate | ||||
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• Total
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US$ 1,193 billion | ||||
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• Per capita
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4,309 | ||||
| Time zone | (UTC+1 to +4) | ||||
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Website
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The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security cooperation among 15 southern African states. It complements the role of the African Union.
SADC has 15 member states:
The origins of SADC lie in the 1960s and 1970s, when the leaders of majority-ruled countries and national liberation movements coordinated their political, diplomatic and military struggles to bring an end to colonial and white-minority rule in southern Africa. The immediate forerunner of the political and security cooperation leg of today's SADC was the informal Frontline States (FLS) grouping. It was formed in 1980.
The Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) was the forerunner of the socio-economic cooperation leg of today's SADC. The adoption by nine majority-ruled southern African countries of the Lusaka declaration on 1 April 1980 paved the way for the formal establishment of SADCC in April 1980.
Membership of the FLS and SADCC sometimes differed.
SADCC was transformed into SADC on 17 August 1992, with the adoption by the founding members of SADCC and newly independent Namibia of the Windhoek declaration and treaty establishing SADC. The 1992 SADC provided for both socio-economic cooperation and political and security cooperation. In reality, the FLS was dissolved only in 1994, after South Africa's first democratic elections. Subsequent efforts to place political and security cooperation on a firm institutional footing under SADC's umbrella failed.
On 14 August 2001, the 1992 SADC treaty was amended. The amendment heralded the overhaul of the structures, policies and procedures of SADC, a process which is ongoing. One of the changes is that political and security cooperation is institutionalised in the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security (OPDS). One of the principal SADC bodies, it is subject to the oversight of the organisation's supreme body, the Summit, which comprises the heads of state or government.
The organisation holds its own multi-sport event in the form of the SADC Games, which was first held in 2004 in Maputo. Originally planned for an earlier date in Malawi and Lesotho, organisational issues led to abandonment of the plan and the SADC issuing a fine of $100,000 against Malawi. The first event in 2004 in Maputo resulted in over 1000 youths under-20 from 10 countries taking part in a sports programme including athletics, football, netball, boxing and basketball.
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Wikipedia