CIAO DATE: 8/00

No Future for SADC? Perspectives for Regional Integration in Southern Africa after the Mauritius Summit

Regional integration in southern Africa, although frequently regarded as a useful and necessary project, seems to have come to a standstill since 1998. After South Africa had joined SADC in 1994, many observers had hoped that the integration project would be seeing rapid progress. When, in August 1996, SADC agreed on the establishment of a free trade area, many observers regarded this as an important step forward (cf. Gibb 1998, p. 303). However, the developments since 1996 are characterised by too few steps forward and too many back. We are witnessing a combination of economic decline and lack of responsible leadership in the region.

In this paper, we shall look at some of the more decisive issues, namely: the chances and risks of the integration process in SADC, the special role of South Africa, which acts both as a threat as well as an engine to SADC, and the perspectives of the integration process in SADC after the 1998 SADC Summit in Mauritius.

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