President Zuma leads delegation to SADC Summit

The summit, which starts on Wednesday, is themed 'Regional Strategy and Roadmap for Industrialisation'.

The summit is a sequel to the decision of the 34th Ordinary SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government held in August 2014, which mandated the Ministers of Trade in the region to work on a draft strategy and roadmap on industrialisation.

It will consider the draft Regional Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap and the revised Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP).

It is also expected that the summit will discuss preparations for the upcoming Third COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Summit to be held in June in Egypt, which will see the launch of the long awaited tripartite free trade area between three regional blocs in Africa.

Also on the agenda will be the preparations for the launch of negotiations for the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA).

President Zuma will be accompanied by the Ministers of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Trade and Industry Rob Davies and Finance Nhlanhla Nene.

The three Ministers are already in Zimbabwe, where they participated in the council of ministers meeting on Monday.

South Africa is one of 15 member states of SADC and currently chairs the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.

Other member states are Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.