POLITICAL WEEK AHEAD | Sadc leaders gather in Durban for key summit

Southern African Development Community (Sadc) heads of state and government will convene in Durban on Monday for the regional bloc’s 46th ordinary summit, hosted and chaired by President Cyril Ramaphosa, with industrialisation, infrastructure, agriculture and critical minerals transformation high on the agenda.

The summit will be held at the Durban International Conference Centre. It is also expected to delve into the sensitive issue of migration, which has hogged the political limelight in the past few months.

The Sadc bloc is a regional economic community and intergovernmental organisation aimed at promoting sustainable economic growth, political cooperation, peace and security, and regional integration among 16 member states in Southern Africa.

The summit is expected to deliberate on wide-ranging issues aimed at accelerating regional integration and development, including the state of the Sadc region; progress made in implementing decisions adopted at previous Sadc summits; Sadc’s strategic development plans for 2020-30 and Vision 2025; and the impact of geopolitical development on the region.

It will also discuss the Sadc Regional Development Fund and global, continental and regional economic trends and updates on the region’s socio-economic and political performance.

Leaders from the ANC, SACP and Cosatu are set to address the central executive committee meeting of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, this week.

Popcru is an affiliate of labour federation Cosatu and represents about 160,000 police, prison, and traffic officers countrywide. The meeting, held under the theme “Building a Sustainable Organisation in Defence of Collective Bargaining”, will take place from Tuesday to Saturday.

It is set to deliberate on key issues affecting workers and the country, including collective bargaining, worker wellness, public safety, policing, corrections, traffic, border management, gender justice, and the broader political tasks facing workers in the current period.

The ANC is expected to finalise its candidate lists and mayoral candidates for the country’s eight metros this week, ahead of its local government election manifesto launch in Diepsloot on Sunday.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has previously said the party will field 10,000 candidates countrywide.

Parliament is set for a busy week, with a number of scheduled committee meetings.