May we have the delegation settle and may we remain standing. May may we remain standing as we invite thei gospel music crescendos to sing the national anthem starting with the national anthem of South Africa. the national the anthem of Sardic and the AU anthem. [singing] Super [singing] [singing] Sing. [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [music] [singing] >> [singing] >> South [singing] Afric [singing] [singing] [singing] [music] [singing] to come Together and united [singing] we shall stand. Let us [singing] live and strive for free in [singing] South Africa. [applause] Sonic, [singing] don't [singing] forget [singing] [singing] of future and hope [singing] for original and universal integration to all the [singing] people's unity and harmony of humanity of our ancestors. Let us [singing] praise joy the realization of our hopes and raise [singing] the pain of solidity. [singing] [singing] Don't know. [singing] Let us all [singing] together the [singing] victory for our liberation. Let [singing] us dedicate ourselves to rise together to defend [singing] our liberty and unity. Oh [singing] sons and daughters of Africa, flesh of the sun [singing and music] and flesh of the sky. Let [singing] us make Africa the tree of life. >> [applause] >> Thank you to the Atuini Gospel music crescendos for the renditions of the anthem. May you be seated. Dang, Loani, San Bonani, Moore, Bondier, Bonjour. Good morning. My name is Kumbu Chaveeni, the minister in the presidency. I will be the program director for the larger part of the day. Mr. President, allow me to begin by warmly welcoming all our distinguished guests, dignitaries, scholars, traditional and community leaders, members of the diplomatic corp, business, civil society, women organizations, youth and student formations, as well as members of the public. I also wish to extend a very warm welcome to our delegations from the southern African development community and to all our regional partners who have joined us for this important conversation. We are deeply honored to host this public lecture. SADC is not simply an institutional arrangement between governments. At its heart, SADC is about the people. It is about the young person in Lusaga, Maputo, Kabaroni, Harare, Maseru, Babane, Venduk, Lwanda, Antana, Roi, Leilonge, Kinshasa, Victoria, Moroni and D Salam or even here in Durban who wants access to education, decent work, affordable energy, reliable connectivity and the opportunity to build a better future. It is about a farmer who needs access to regional markets. It is about an entpreneur who wants to trade beyond national borders. It is about communities that require reliable infrastructure, food security and climate change, climate resilience. It is about our collective responsibility to ensure that peace, stability and development become tangible realities in the daily lives of our citizens. This is why SADC vision 2050 matters. But the question before us is no longer simply whether we have the right vision. The question is how do we translate that vision into action. How do we move from commitments to implementation? How do we move from regional protocols and strategies to infrastructure that connects our economies, industries that create jobs, markets that enable our businesses to grow, and institutions that deliver to our people? And perhaps most importantly, how do we ensure that regional integration is experienced not only at summits and policy documents, but in everyday lives of our ordinary citizens? These are not easy questions. Not easy because our region continues to confront unemployment and inequality, food and energy insecurity, infrastructure deficits, climate change, public health challenges, and pressures on national and regional fiscal capacity. At the same time, the international environment is changing rapidly. Geopolitical tensions, geoeconomic fragmentation, technological disruption, and climate related shocks are reshaping the global economy. These developments remind us of an important lesson that no SADC member state can fully secure its prosperity in isolation. Our economies, our security, our infrastructure, our food systems and increasingly our digital spaces are interconnected. Our response must therefore also be collective and we must recognize our common destiny. Distinguished guests, regional security and regional solidarity is not merely a political principle. It is an economic and strategic necessity. Equality requires that regional integration must create opportunities that are accessible to all, particularly women, young people, rural communities, and those who have historically been excluded from economic opportunities. And shared prosperity requires that the benefits of regional integration are translated into productive economies, decent livelihoods, stronger communities, and a better quality of life across the region. This means that we must be prepared to ask more difficult questions. Are we moving quickly enough to build regional value chains? Are our borders facilitating trade rather than constraining it? Are we investing sufficiently in infrastructure that connects our economies? Are we preparing our young people with the skills required for the economies of tomorrow? Are we harnessing digital technologies and innovation to overcome some of our lo longstanding development constraints? and are we measuring progress in a way that allows citizens to see the experience and experience the impact of regional integration? These questions make today's public lecture particularly important. The participation of business reminds us that regional integration must create productive economic opportunities. The participation of civil society, women and youth must ensure that our development agenda remains inclusive. The participation of traditional and community leaders brings the voice and experience of communities into the regional conversation and the participation of governments and regional institutions provides the opportunity to connect these perspectives to implementation. The presence of academia is particularly important because knowledge must inform policy but policy must also be tested against evidence and lived experiences. Our task today is therefore not simply to celebrate and discuss vision 2050. It is to interrogate it, strengthen it and most importantly consider how we can accelerate its implementation. As we commence this important program, let us remind remember remember that 2050 is not only a destination on a distant horizon. It is being shaped by the decisions we make today. The infrastructure we build today, the young people we educate today, the industries we establish today, the institutions we strengthen today, the partnerships we forge today, and the choices we make today about solidarity, inclusion, and shared prosperity. With these thoughts, it is my great pleasure to welcome you once again to this public lecture in honor of South Africa's chairship of the 46th SADC summit. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Due to time, I want to establish the protocols which I'm going to request that all the speakers except of course the keynote speakers must just stand on them so that we don't it take the time. I'd like to acknowledge his excellency president Ramaposa the president of the republic of South Africa. >> [applause] >> Mr. Mr. and may the the the chairing and ulilations and clapping must only reserve for the president. Allow me to read through the protocols. Otherwise, Mr. Ronald Lamoola will be more popular than me. Mr. President Minister Ronald Lamula, the Minister of International Relations and Cooperations in the Republic of South Africa and the chairperson of the SADC council of ministers. He has kept us busy, Mr. President, excellencies of ministers of foreign affairs and heads of delegation from SADC member states, my colleagues, honorable ministers and other members of the of cabinet and of the republic of South Africa and members of the interministerial committee on the SADC summit. the executive secretary of Saddak, Mr. Elas Marosi and his delegation, honorable premier of Guazun Nadal, Premier Dulli, members of the portfolio committee of par of the presidency and other members of parliament who have joined us, the deputy secretary general of the African National Congress, Menum Vulaman, otherwise I'll lose my job. Honorable deputy ministers and MC's, honorable speaker and members of the Quazulunatal legislature, members of the diplomatic corp, executive mayor of Eequini municipality and his delegation of counselors, district and local municipality mayors and mun speakers, the chairperson of the council of the University of Guazulu Natal, Miss Kumo Tim, the vice chancellor of the University of Natal, professor Nana Poku, their majesties Royal Highnesses and esteem esteem esteemed traditional leaders, distinguished business leaders and captains of industries, leaders of organized labor, distinguished religious leaders. There are also leaders from various government entity SOS that are invested in the continent in our region of SADC and in the continent of Africa and also retired judge judge president Judge Shabala in our midst. I'll therefore on this note invite Mrs. Kumu Timune the chairperson of council for the University of Guazunatal an institution that has provided us with this host venue where the driven voices are meeting today to come and properly welcome us and chair. [applause] Program director Minister Kumbon Chavei Minister in the Presidency His Excellency Elas Mahosi Executive Secretary of Sadc Excellency Mr. Sarah Ramaposa, President of the Republic of South Africa, the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Mr. Ronald Lamula, the Minister of Trade and Industry and Competition, Mr. Pak Dau, the Premier of Guazunu Nadal, Mr. Tamuli, Her Excellency, Former Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, Miss Pumsilm Lamonga, the Chief Executive Officer of Standard Bank of South Africa, Mr. Shalala, our distinguished panelist and moderator, Mr. Miss Nosi Pocha Balala, members of the diplomatic corpse, representative of government, academia, business and civil society, members of UK Zet and academic leadership, colleagues and students, members of the media, distinguished guest, ladies and gentlemen, good morning and a very welcome to everyone joining us for this important lecture convened ahead of the 46 ordinary SADC heads of state and government which begins at the Devon ICC on Monday. As the University of Kulunatal, we are delighted to host this engagement and I would like to express our sincere appreciation to the SADC secretariat, the department of international relations and cooperation and the presidency for entrusting UK with this opportunity. Let me also acknowledge our vice chancellor and principal h professor Nana Poku, members of the university leadership, our academic community and students and the colleagues across UK ZN who have worked with our partners to facilitate today's engagement. We are pleased to provide this space for this important regional conversation and grateful to everyone who has contributed to making today's program possible for us. hosting this lecture speaks directly to who we are as a university, what we stand for, and the role that higher education can and must play in advancing the development of our country, our region, and our continent. As a university committed to being a premier institution of African scholarship, we recognize our responsibility not only to generate knowledge, but to ensure that knowledge contributes meaningfully to the advancement of our societies. The Saddak region is central to this commitment. Our connection with the [clears throat] SAD region is already a a lived reality. The majority of our international students come from SADC member states accounting for approximately 63% of our international student population. This reflects the strong academic and human connection that already exists between UK Zetin and the SADC region as well as the university's contribution to regional skills development, student mobility and knowledge exchange. But this relationship is not onedirectional. Our students and academic from across the region and reach UK Zen in equally significant ways. They bring diverse experiences, perspective and ideas and challenge us to understand the opportunities and challenges facing our societies from multiple vantage points. A significant proportion of these students are also pursuing postgraduate qualification further strengthening our contribution to research innovation and knowledge production across the region. Our ambition is to deepen th this academic research and institutional relationship and to welcome even more scholars from across SADC to UK Zen. We believe this this ambition aligns closely with South Africa's SADC chairmanship for 2026 2027 and we are committed to contributing to its priorities in ways that draw on our core strength as a university. In particular, we see an important opportunity to help translate regional priorities into knowledge based, researchinformed and practical solutions that can improve the lives of people across southern Africa. Much of this work is already taking place across our four colleges. Our researchers are engaged in areas directly relevant to the developmental challenges and opportunities of the region, including health, indigenous knowledge systems, agriculture, engineering, space, science, and emerging fields such as quantum computing. In the health sciences, our researchers are advancing knowledge on conditions that disproportionately affect African populations. Through our work in indigenous knowledge systems, we are generating evidence, preserving and strengthening knowledge and exploring its contribution to health care, environmental sustainability and community development. Across this and many other fields, our objective is to generate knowledge that is both globally relevant and firmly grounded in the realities and priorities of our region. But research achieves its greatest impact when there is a meaningful convergence between research, policy and practice. Universities cannot work in isolation. The knowledge we generate must connect with government priorities, industry, civil society and regional institutions. If it is to translate into meaningful and sustainable outcomes, that is what makes today's lecture particularly viable. It provides a space for us to engage critically with the challenges confronting our region but also importantly to look beyond those challenges towards the opportunities before us. It brings together government, academia, regional institutions, student, civil society and other institutions to consider not only the future we want for SAD but what we must do collectively to realize that future. As a university, we welcome that conversation. Our role is not simply to generate knowledge, but also to bring people and ideas together, to challenge the assumptions, to encourage evidence-based dialogue, and to help shape solutions. I therefore hope that today's discussion will be open, thoughtful, constructive, and above all, useful. Useful in sharpening our understanding of the priorities before the region. and identify practical ways in which we can contribute to a more integrated, inclusive and innovative and prosperous southern Africa. Once again, welcome to UK Zen and thank you for joining us. I wish you a stimulating and productive engagement. I thank you. [applause] Chairperson May. Thank you very much. It is not only the UK Zen. It is particularly fitting that this public lecture takes place here in Quazulu Nadal. An appropriate setting for a conversation about regional solidarity, integration, and a shared future for the peoples of Southern Africa. Allow me to now invite the premier of the province, honorable Mr. Tam. [applause] >> Okay, thank you. >> Uh thank you very much. Uh program uh director for the opportunity uh to also render another welcoming remarks. H is never enough h to say welcome. The program director welcomed us. The chair of the council also welcomed us in UK Zen and I'm also welcoming everyone into this province beautiful province of Guazu Natal. [clears throat] [applause] Uh your excellency the president of the republic of South Africa uh president Ramaposa I've been advised by the prom director uh to observe a protocol in the interest of everything but I will not in fact avoid acknowledging uh my President Shabis, I might lose my job. [applause] H the Minister of Cocka. I might wake up tomorrow being not a premier. H I wish to observe the protocol as per the guidance h by the prom director. But to the students, I think it's quite very important that I extend my warm greetings from the government of Guazu Natal. We are greatly honored to welcome all of you at this occasion. You honor us by your presence and we thank you most sincere sincerely. We are particularly honored that the president of our country will be delivering this sadic lecture under the theme translating a sic vision 2050 into action pathways towards solidarity equality and shared prosperity your excellency Mr. President, today's lecture is not merely an academic engagement. It is a call to collective purpose. The sac the summit which this lecture is part of takes place at a time when the economic and geopolitical dynamics are changing almost every day. This demands of us in southern Africa to be proactive, anticipative and agile. It requires that we put in place programs and systems that can be easily adapted to new scenarios. To all summit delegates, you have landed on the soil of a king who united nations. Shaga built one people from many. He forged unity through vision, through discipline and through a purpose. That a same spirit of unity brings us together today. Sad was born from a similar dream. The dream of a united prosperous southern southern Africa where Shaga united a nation. Our founders united the region. We honor that legacy this week. This province carries more than one great name. This is the land of Inosi Albert Lutuli the Nobel peace loret who taught the world that a justice and peace walk together. This is the land of his majesty king a goodwill zini zulu custodian of a proud Zulu nation and its living traditions. This is the land of Prince Mangosut Teresi, a stateman who served his people across a generations. Each of these leaders believed in African dignity. Each of them believed in African unity. You stand today where they stood. Continental unity is not a slogan. It is a responsibility. Africa's founders understood this. SADC founders understood this. We understand it as you gather this week. You carry forward at that same mission. A southern Africa that stands together, that trace together, that grows together. Nadal is honored to host this chapter of that journey. Too often our citizens know more about nations beyond this continent than they know about their neighbors. A child in Guazu Natal may know the geography of a distant lands before they know the geography of Maputo or of Lusaga. This must change. Public diplomacy is how we change it. It is how we teach our people that a Zambian farmer and a medbian a teacher and a mob a fisherman are not strangers. They are neighbors. They are partners, family in the circuit sense of a world. Education is the foundation of this effort. Our schools must teach regional history, not only national history. Our media must tell regional stories, not only local stories. Our universities must exchange students across the region so that a young person from Dean studies in Har and a young person from Winduk studies in Peter Marsburg. Understanding is a build through conduct. Conduct is built through deliberate effort. Prom director a summit succeed not only in what is signed but in what is understood. Led s a gathering in dean inspire renewed a commitment to public diplomacy investment in exchange programs regional media partnership and cultural cooperations. Let our citizen know each other as sad intended, not as a foreigners bound by a treaty, but as one a people bound by a shared future. Allow me to conclude by h touching on a important matter. Sak is more than a diplomatic gathering. It is the architectctor of our shared prosperity. It links a 16 economies into one regional promise. It moves a goods across borders. It moves people across a borders and moves capital across borders. This is political economy in its truest sense. Politics and economics working as a one. Was Nadal sits at the heart of this regional economy. Dean is Africa's busiest port. Richest Bay is the gateway for regional trade. The north south corridor runs through this province linking us to Zambia h to the democratic republic of Congo h to z to to Zimbabwe and beyond. When sate trade grows was natal grows. When our roads move faster our regions move faster. Our infrastructure is not provincial infrastructure. it is regional infrastructure. We therefore carry a responsibility beyond our provincial borders. Every rent we invest in our port serves this region. Every improvement to our logistics corridors serves this region. Every partnership we build serves aic vision of a shared growth. Wazul does not merely host this summit. Wasun Natal lives the mission of this summit every day through our hers, our highways and our trade. This is why your presence here carries such weight. You are meeting in a province that understands regional integration not as theory but as a daily practice. As we deliberate this week, we must know that was Nadal stand ready, ready to trade, ready to partner, ready to build the united, prosperous southern Africa that SAT was founded to achieve. Once again, I wish to welcome everyone present into the Natal. Welcome to the land of kings, queens, and statemen. Welcome to a province that believes as you do in the promise of a united Africa. I wish you a productive and successful summit, Mr. President. We look forward to you sharing your insight with us and today I thank you. [applause] It was not just about losing jobs, but honorable Clarissa is a leader of a political party in parliament. We also have another leader of another political party represented in our parliament, Mr. Julius Malima of the EFF. [cheering] Thank you, [applause] ladies and gentlemen. Allow me to now invite the person who is charged with running the pensionary that is responsible for implementing the decisions that our political leaders at SADC take and he's also on behalf of the SADC secretariat the joint host of the public lecture Elias Mahosi the executive secretary of SAD >> [applause] >> Thank you very much. Uh program director indeed we all know where our breads are buttered. I also have to recognize as I appreciate the protocol that has been established but to recognize your excellency Mr. Madame Sir Rama Posa, president of this great republic and the chairperson of our community. >> [applause] >> I also need to recognize my supervisor and leader, honorable Ronald Lamola, the minister of international relations and cooperation of South Africa and the chairperson of the ministers of our community. And then I recognize all protocol as has been set by the program director. I just wish to say good morning to us all. It is an honor and privilege to offer my remarks as well as welcome everyone else to this 2026 Sadic public lecture held here at University of Kazul Natal inquirini South Africa as we unpack the saddak vision allow me at the outset to express our profound appreciation uh to his excellency Mr. Matamela S Rama Posa the president of South Africa for graciously accepting to deliver today's SDK public lecture under the theme translating vision 2050 into action pathways towards solidarity equity equality and shared prosperity. Your excellency, your acceptance to deliver this public lecture despite your very busy schedule is a true reflection of your leadership in shaping and driving our regional agenda forward and of South Africa's enduring commitment to advancing regional integration to peace and security to industrialization infrastructure development and indeed inclusive social economic transformation across the Saddak region. We are privileged to share this platform with you this morning as we tackle this subject of translating vision into action. And what better way to tap into your wisdom and immense experience gained over the years on the same subject. We are equally grateful to the government of this republic, the Guazulunatal provincial government and the university for hosting this important platform for deeper reflection and focus engagement. Universities as are generally known are centers of knowledge creation, of innovation, of critical inquiry and evidence-based policym. They play an important role in nurturing future leaders and generating ideas and solutions needed to address complex challenges challenges facing our region and the world today. They provide an ideal setting for a discussion on translating our collective aspirations into tangible action for the benefit of present and future generations. The University of Kazul Natal is therefore a fitting venue for this very discussion. Your Excellency, the Sadak Vision 2050 reminds us that we are one region comprised of 16 nations united by a shared destiny and a common future. The future envisioned is that by 2050 which is not too far off now s will peaceful, inclusive, comparative and industrialized middle to high income region in which all citizens enjoy sustainable economic well-being, justice and freedom. This vision is ambitious, but it is not abstract, nor is it impossible to realize. It represents a development compact with our people of Southern Africa. It speaks directly to the aspirations for peace, for dignity, for opportunity, decent work, mobility, equality, justice, and improved standards of living. The central question before us today is direct and urgent in my view. How do we translate this vision into action that our citizens can see, can feel and can measure. Vision 2050 must not remain merely a statement of aspiration devoid of meaningful action. It must serve as the organizing framework for Saddak regional integration agenda. It must inform policies we formulate, the investments we prioritize, the infrastructure we build, the industries we nurture, the institutions that need strengthening, and the results we seek to achieve. In practical terms, it must translate into functioning transport corridors, reliable and sustainable energy systems, integrated regional markets, competitive industries, vibrant regional value chains, decent and sustainable jobs, digital connectivity, food security, resilient communities, strengthened institutions, and improved livelihoods for all our people. and leaving no one behind. For this vision to become a reality, therefore, the region must without any further delay, without any more assessments and frameworks to accelerated implementation. Your Excellency, our regional integration agenda is fundamentally about expanding the economic and social opportunities available to our member states and citizens. At its core, regional integration is driven by the benefits derived from trade, investment, factor mobility, and economic cooperation. Through this integration, member states gain access to goods, to services, to markets, capital, technology, skills, knowledge, and productive resources that may not be readily available within the individual national boundaries. For many of our countries, domestic markets alone are insufficient to generate economic economies of scale required to support industrialization, competitiveness, innovation, and sustained investments. Therefore, regional integration expands that scale, providing access to a combined market of approximately 382 million people and an economy worth more than 847 billion US. This scale connects producers to larger markets, enables countries to leverage comparative advantages, reduces costs, harmonizes regulatory frameworks, and links infrastructure systems, and creates conditions for shared growth and prosperity. Today's lecture therefore underscores the importance of public ownership of vision 2050. Achieving it requires greater visibility, awareness and engagement to sustain the interest, the participation and commitment of citizens of SAD in driving regional integration h agenda. The regional integration cannot be sustained by governments alone. It must be understood, embraced and owned by the people it seeks to serve. It must involve academia as it been said, business, civil society organizations, traditional leaders who are amongst us, women, youth, the media, local communities. Academia must help generate evidence, shape policy dialogue and choices, challenge the status quo, develop new skills, drive innovation, and evaluate a progress. Women and youth should not be relegated to the margins of implementation. rather they should be placed at the center at its center to ensure inclusivity and sustainability. The presence of students uh and young people here today is especially significant to us. Vision 2050 is fundamentally about the future and the future that belongs to the youth of Southern Africa. Young people must be recognized not only as beneficiaries of regional integration but also as actors, innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers, professionals, creators, implementers and leaders of the saddic we are collectively uh building and as I conclude uh there are questions that we should answer uh today and six of them are critical in my view. How do we which is the first one accelerate implementation of vision 2060 2050 overcoming over the coming decades? Secondly, how do we ensure that regional commitments are translated into national action and local impact? Three, how do we remove barriers to trade, investment, infrastructure connectivity, technology transfer, productive factor mobility? How do we strengthen peace, security, democracy and good governance as essential foundations uh for sustainable development? How do you accelerate industrialization, strengthen regional value chains, increase intraadic trade and create sustainable employment opportunities particularly for women and young people? And lastly, how do we strengthen financing mechanisms, institutional coordination, monitoring systems and accountability frameworks to ensure that the vision 2050 delivers measurable lasting questions. I leave you with those questions. Mr. President, ending we look forward to your keynote address and to the wisdom, the guidance and the inspiration that you will share with us today. We are confident that this public lecture will enrich regional dialogue on vision 2050, strengthen public ownership of the SDK integration agenda and inspire renewed commitment to implementation across our community. It should therefore be more than a ceremonial occasion. It should be an a call to action. I thank you for your attention. >> [applause] >> Remosi for the one who is mobilizing the response to the critical questions and the saddic action plan. Ladies and gentlemen, join me as we welcome to the podium, Minister Ronald Lamola of the Republic of South Africa, the Department of International Relations and Coordination and the Chairperson of the Council of Ministers, Minister Lamola. Thank you very much uh program director Minister Chavin, your excellency President Mamela Sraosa. I've heard everyone is scared to be fired. I'm also scared to be fired. So I will acknowledge my colleagues, honorable ministers responsible for foreign affairs in the member states in the SDK region. Maybe I can request them to stand up you know because they are here all of them. [applause] Thank you. [applause] So they've just elected me two days ago to be the chair of the council of ministers. So [applause] you know and we are reconvening later this afternoon. So so you can see the danger of emotion of no confidence if I distinguished guests. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. It is a privilege to make these introductory remarks under the theme translating saddak vision 2050 into action. Pathways towards solidarity, equality and a shared prosperity. The world is undergoing significant transformation. Great power competition is intensifying. Advanced economies are turning inwards. Events beyond our region affect food and energy security as well as jobs and livelihoods. Pandemics and climate disasters are a recurring threat. Trade is weaponized to push countries that do that that do not to the line. Competition for Africa's mineral wealth is prompting talk of another scramble for African resources. These realities compel us to renew our determination to build a peaceful, inclusive and an industrialized SADC where more than 400 million people can enjoy peace, justice, freedom and shared prosperity. This SADC public lecture, it's a moment to take stock of our progress and a kilometers ahead on our journey towards vision 2050 and the continental aspirations inscribed in agenda 2063. It is fitting then that this lecture, a space for dialogue among stakeholders including policy makers, academics and the public will be delivered by his excellency president Siril Madamea Ramaposa. President Ramaposa witnessed, participated in and led the struggle that culminated in the fall of apartid the last bastion of colonial domination in our region and on the continent. His defeat remains one of the high water marks of Africa's long walk to liberation and self-determination. As a negotiator and a fervent champion of dialogue, his journey mirrors the coming into being of our democratic nation. Through his words and actions, President Ramaposa belongs to a cohort of African leaders who have advanced Africa's agency and pen African solidarity. He has championed the reform and the democratization of global governance including during his chairship of the G20, the first on the African soil. He has also championed meaningful African representation, coordinated responses to pandemics and Africa peace initiatives. As narrow nationalism rises and some quarters rail against international cooperation and solidarity, his vision and leadership are critical. fluent in multiple languages. He can regail you in venda, in shitsonga, in Swati and any other of our official languages. I'm not sure about the others, Mr. President. But this shows us what it is truly means to embrace diversity. Excellencies and ladies and gentlemen, to the students, the president is also takes. He always look around for his iPad. He doesn't mind you putting him in your content on Tik Tok, Facebook and Instagram and all your social media platforms. So please students make the president trend. [applause] Please join me in welcoming to the stage a leader who brings history, experience and convictions to our region's next chapter. As you stand up, your excellency President Madame Raaposa, the president of the Republic of South Africa. [cheering] [applause] [applause] Thank you. Good. Let's be seated, please. Thank you. [cheering] Thank you so much. Now that everyone who stood here has uh spoken in fear of being fired if they don't acknowledge certain things. I have two. The first one is to acknowledge the deputy secretary general of the African National Congress. [applause] And I acknowledge her not so much because uh I could be fired, which is always a possibility, but also because Having her here is a good reminder for me because it is at this institution that I was elected the secretary general of the African National Congress in 1991. [applause] I can safely say that Ronald Lamoola was not here. Julius Malima was not here. And the second one is a personal one. Uh I often tell people that I'm a doctor by marriage. My wife graduated here. [cheering] >> [applause] >> So whether she's watching or not, uh to save my marriage, I have to say I acknowledge her. [laughter] Uh, Minister Lamola on a third one stands a chance of being fired because much as he's terrified of being fired from his position by the ministers of foreign affairs of the Saddak countries who I acknowledge with warm hands and a heart. He did not disclose and he could be fired for this that uh uh he's a minister not so much because I appointed him but his great capabilities uh were actually endowed on him by me when he was a student and I gave him his degree as chancellor. [laughter] I was the chancellor of the university where he graduated. So he is what he is because I gave him a degree. Premier of province here in Quzan and Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of Guazulunatal, Professor Nana Poku and your excellencies, ministers who are here present from our various Saddak countries and uh your excellencies heads of missions. the executive secretary of Saddak Releasi and members of the secretariat and the mayor of Etiquini, my name Sir Taba, Amakosi and traditional leaders who are also here present, distinguished academics, members of the diplomatic CP and leaders of various political parties who are here from the IFP, from the EFF, uh from the DA, and indeed from other political parties, leaders of business and organized labor, representatives of civil society, of women's formations, of youth movements, and more importantly, the students of this university who are here present. I welcome you and I thank you for being here and I say clock it. Clock it. [cheering] [cheering] Thank you. Now, as I go around the country, so as I go around the country, you young people, you teach me many things. One of the things that you have taught me, and it's not you, Ronald Lamola, or you Julius Malma who taught me Instagram. I was taught by other young people. And now you've taught me crocket. When I got home, when I got home, my daughter showed me a a video and she said, "What were you doing?" I say, "I was clocking." She said, "Who taught you to clock?" And I couldn't disclose who taught me. So you taught me all these wonderful things and thank you very much. You are making me feel a lot younger than I am. It is for me a great honor to address you on the eve of a gathering that brings to this city the leadership of our southern African region and particularly to talk about the theme that has been articulated over and over by a number of speakers. It is fitting that we should gather at a univers at the university because the future of our region will in the end be determined not only in cabinet rooms or in parliament chambers and summit halls but also in lecture theaters, in laboratories, in workshops and in centers of innovation. And more particularly in this university, the chair of the council or the vice chancellor was regailing me with uh uh the many attempts that are being made by this university to even launch rockets into space and possibly one day even put a person on the moon. uh this is the excellence that I have come to realize resides here. So the future the future of our region is a future that will be determined in the lecture theaters of universities various universities of our region by young people by all of you who sit there up in the amphitheater. It is fitting too that we should meet here in Kzan. 20 years ago, a young man who was born and raised in the hills of this province stood before an audience at Colombia University in New York in the United States to deliver an oration that would resonate across ages and more particularly across the various countries of our continent. in his speech and his speech was quoted on a number of occasions by another giant of our African continent, Guam Kuruma. In his speech, this young man who grew up here in this province, he said the regeneration of Africa and that was Pixa Casem. He presented a vision of a continent freed from the shackles of colonial bondage and alive with human possibilities. It is a vision that has inspired generations of Africans as they strove to overcome the shackles of colonial bondage and to give effect to the promise of the liberation that we have won. In words that were both prophetic and moving, Pixley is said, "The brighter day is rising upon Africa already." He said, "I see I seem to see her chains dissolved more than a hundred years ago." And the prophet that he was, he saw the chains that kept us bound dissolved. And it happened. But he continued and he said, "I see her desert plains red with harvest, her abisia, which is Ethiopia, and her Zulu land, the seats of science and religion, reflecting the glory of the rising sun from the spires of their churches and universities. Her Congo and her Gambia whitened with commerce, her crowded cities sending forth the hum of business, and all her sons employed in advancing the victories of peace greater and more adding than the spoils of war. Now, this description of a rising Africa truly lies at the heart of vision 2050 of the Southern African Development Community here where we live. Vision 2050 imagines a region that is vibrant, dynamic and productive. It imagines a regions where the borders drawn on colonial maps present no hindrance to the free flow of knowledge, of capital, of goods, of services, of people across and skills across our region. Vision 2050 imagines a region where all people from the Cape of Good Hope to the banks of the Congo River, from the gleaming shores of Mauritius to the bustling po ports of Angola have food and water and security and comfort. It is a region whose people live healthy lives. That is what is envisaged by 2050. Where they are educated, where they have skills and capabilities and where they have decent work and sustainable livelihoods. The formation of Saddak was necessary because the brighter future imagined by Pixa Isak could not be achieved by any one southern African country acting on its own. As our secretary of Saddak said, colonialism did not merely conquer our people and occupy our land. It deliberately fragmented our region. It divided communities. It divided families. It separated producers from markets and constructed to carry transport systems rather designed to carry Africa's raw materials to distant shores rather than to connect African economies to one another. The economies of southern Africa were made dependent, unequal, and vulnerable. Many were too small on their own to develop competitive industries. They were too small to mobilize sufficient capital or to build the infrastructure necessary for economic transformation. It was in response to this reality that in April 1980, the leaders of the independent Southern African states gathered in Lusaka to establish the Southern African Development Coordination Conference, the organization from which Saddak later emerged. Their immediate objective was to reduce their economic dependence on apartate South Africa. But their purpose went much further. They understood that political independence would remain incomplete without economic liberation. They recognized that the countries of our region shared more than geography. We shared a history. We shared a struggle and a common destiny. Our freedom was interconnected and so too would our prosperity be. Saddak was therefore formed to transform shared vulnerability into shared strength. It was created so that our countries could coordinate development. Our countries should connect their infrastructure, expand their trade, support liberation and defend their sovereignty. the sovereignty of this region by acting together by literally and physically defending the peoples of this region. What began as solidarity in the struggle against colonialism and aparate has evolved into a project of regional integration [clears throat] and economic transformation as well. That is why SADC remains indispensable to the realization of vision 2050. No single country on its own can be able to own to create all the regional value chains that we need. We are so interconnected. We cannot exist on our own. No country can independently build an integrated power pool to develop crossber transport corridors to manage shared water resources, respond effectively to regional conflict or withstand the full effects of climate change. None of us can. And what we've gone on to build in an inconnected way speaks to the need for our unity. Speaks to the vision 2050. But together we possess the energy. We possess the minerals, the agricultural resources, the skills, the markets, the financial institutions that are needed to build a prosperous industrialized region. Saddak is the instrument through which we can bring these capabilities to life as we act together. Its founding represented the conviction that none of us would actually be really truly free until all of us are free. Vision 2050 now requires us to embrace an equally powerful conviction that none of our countries can achieve enduring prosperity unless prosperity is shared across the region. In this sense, 20 vision 2050 is not a departure from SADC's founding mission. It is the fulfillment of that mission. The journey that began with the struggle for political liberation must now be completed through economic integration, industrialization, and the improvement of the lives of the people of Southern Africa. The question before us, therefore, is not whether this vision is attainable. The question is whether we have the courage, the discipline and the determination to make it real. That is the question. Secretary Mahosi raises six question. I raise one question and that is the question that faces us. The task that falls on all of us as the southern African community is to give life to this vision 2050. It is up to us to undertake the detailed planning and painstaking work to build a future that lives up to the people's expectations. Vision 2050 must be more than a statement of intent. It must become a program of action. It must shape the decisions that we take, the budgets that we adopt, the infrastructure that we build, the skills that we develop, and the institutions that we build and strengthen. Above all, it must produce results that can be seen, results that can be felt in the lives of the people of this region. All of us gathered here in this hall and all those who live in the hills and the valleys, towns and the cities and the rural areas of our country that lie across the southern African region share a common destiny and therefore carry a shared responsibility to achieve vision 2050. Among the founders of the of Saddak were nations that were themselves having had to emerge from colonial occupation were determined that all the people of our region be liberated from the oppression of subjugation. For this principled stance, for this defiance and solidarity, these countries were subjected to years of aparate aggression, sabotage, and destabilization. Infrastructure was destroyed and damaged. Citizens were maimed and killed. Development was stifled and held back. We can never forget that the freedom that South Africans enjoy today was in great measure paid for by the people of our region and our continent. And we as South Africans, we eternally say thank you, thank you, thank you and thank you to the peoples of our regions. [applause] We never forget that this community Saddak was founded as an act of moral solidarity. As Saddak has evolved as an instrument of greater political, social and economic cooperation, the principle of solidarity has remained its driving force. Since that gathering of visionary leaders in 1980s, Saddak has been at the forefront of progress in Southern Africa. It was vital. It was a important development. It was also pivotal in the struggle to end colonialism and apartheid in southern Africa and to build vibrant democracies that give voice to the needs and the aspirations of our people. Through our community, we have built a free trade area. We have a southern African power pool through which electricity moves across our various countries as though there are no borders. We have one-stop border posts at some of our busiest crossings that have reduced waiting times from hours from days to hours. And we are going to build and develop more border crossings, one-stop border crossings to enable the ease of the flow of business, trade and people and services. We've introduced an electronic certificate of origin that enables a more seamless passage of goods between member states. We have an architecture for mediation and for election observation that has reinforce democratic governance and enhance stability in our region. While we have made much progress, there is still much to be done. We are a population of 430 million people with a GDP of some 950 million which is almost a trillion dollars. It's a formidable resource for the people of our region. Trade amongst our Saddak states stands at just under a quarter of our combined total trade. And yet together we have the means to produce all the goods and the services that we need. And together as a community we have all the energy sources that we need. We have the land and the means to produce all the food that we need. Together we have the mineral resources we need. We have the technology and the knowhow to turn these resources into manufactured goods that our people can use, but also goods that peoples in other parts of the world also can need. We have the financial institutions, the funding instruments and the markets to finance our industries and to build the infrastructure that we need. And yet we look beyond our shores to supply our people. Our railways were built to run to the sea rather than to run to each other. They were designed to carry raw minerals to destinations that are far a field and to bring goods produced elsewhere in other parts of the world to our cities and to our towns. Now this reliance on others rather than on each other is one of the most persistent constraints to the development of our region. And it is this reliance on others that must be brought to an end. And it must be brought to an end now rather than later. [applause] Now this weakness is more pronounced at this moment of considerable turbulence in the global economy. Conflicts that take place far away from our region in places where most of our people have never set foot and have never been now have a profound effect on the daily lives of our people. Global shipping is disrupted. Many of our agricultural products cannot reach their markets. They rot in ships in the sea. Our farmers cannot get fertilizers so that they can produce food so that we have food security. The cost of imported grain has risen. The cost of living is rising with the spikes in the oil price. And some countries are worried about shortages. The established rules of global trade offer less and less protection, threatening several industries across our region. Now, these global developments teach us that access to a distant market, however valuable, is a borrowed advantage. This access may be extended and it may be withdrawn. Decisions are often taken in capitals that are far away from where we are, where our businesses have no say and our workers have no vote at all. A regional market is a different one. A regional market is an advantage that we ourselves own. Others cannot take it away from us. The welfare of our people and the sovereignty of the security of our nations requires that we work with greater diligence and purpose to build an integrated Southern African market. when some leader somewhere decided to have what he called liberation day and started imposing tariffs on all other countries around the world. It immediately taught us here in South Africa that we now needed to start developing other markets rather than be dependent on one market. We decided that we are now going to look at alternative markets and strengthen our southern African marketplace, strengthen our African marketplace and rely on those because those belong to us because they must be a market in which the value and the benefits of trade are evenly shared. where we share together where none of us will wake up one day and say I am imposing 75% tariffs on the goods that you produce because I don't like your policies of integration or equity. No, [applause] it must be a market where all of us continue to operate in underpinned by policies of equity, of respect, of recognition of the standing of each of our countries. And in doing so, our task is not to re reproduce the industrial models that are pursued on other continents or in other times. Our energy mix is different. Our demog demographic profile is also different. Our comparative advantage in the minerals of the energy transition is unlike anything possessed by previous rapidly developing economies. This region holds sub a substantial share of the world's critical mineral resources. Many of the minerals that are dependent upon for energy transition are to be found here. We are the owners of all these critical minerals that the planet needs. And the sooner we make them realize that the better. the sooner they realize that Saddak is really the home of all these critical minerals ranging from rare earth to lithium to all these other minerals, the more they will stand up and recognize that Saddak counts for a lot in the coming world economy. But [applause] but these minerals continue to cross our borders in raw form. Truth be told, we export the ore and we import the battery. We supply an industrial revolution that is taking place somewhere else and we then purchase the products of that industrial revolution at a price that is set by others. We need to use our own resources to drive our own industrial re revolution. This is the time for us as Africa, as SADC to drive the real industrial revolution because we have products that are needed for the future. Our ambition, our ambition should not be to catch up with other countries. Our ambition should be to build a regional economy that is unique to our circumstances but that is also unique to our times. To build such an economy we must firstly complete what we have begun. We must eliminate non-tariff barriers to trade. Suppliers should no longer have to wait for months for a license. Goods should no longer have to be inspected on one side of the border and then again on the other side of the border. Standards should be harmonized. Standards should be transparent and they must be applied consistently through the declaration adopted at the 9th Saddak Industrialization Week in this city a fortnight ago. Our region has committed to the local processing of both critical minerals and agricultural products. We must turn that commitment into refining and smelting capacity that we must build here. It is rather sad that we mine ore here. We cut it on our trains. We put it on boats and off it goes to other lands and in no time we then bring back that same ore in different form and we buy it at a higher price. We now need to own the entire value chain the ore the processing and the production of the products that will come out of there. What should leave our continent should be the final products that we will sell at good value and that is what will fuel our revolution. [applause] And yes, we often hear that yes, we need more energy, we need more finance, we need to build the factories and we do have those capabilities. And we have those capabilities that are different in all our 16 countries. Our 16 countries in the region must cooperate and clap together and one can produce one portion of a product. The next one can produce another portion. The other one can display its capability capability of its young people to innovate and so forth. all that can be packaged into the product that we will then cut out of our region to other places and all of us then join in in the value that will be the defining clever moment that our region will have arrived at. We must turn our intentions into investments. Investments in regional electricity generation and transmission, investments into crossborder water schemes. We are already there but we now need to up it. South Africa gets water from Lutu and now we are going to get the same water going to Botswana. We now going to have rail systems that are going to crisscross this whole region. Already in the northern part of our region there are huge and massive road networks and bridge networks and various corridors that we are building. We must invest in roads in rail lines and ports so that we can move our processed minerals and manufactured goods around our region. The linkage between South Africa and Mosmbique through the N4 line was one of the most defining development intercountry development in the Southern African region. We cannot rely on others to fund these investments. We must do so ourselves. There's a lot of financial resource that we can tap and package ourselves and yes work with others so that we are able to finance some of these projects through the putting into operation of the SADC regional development fund. We must mobilize the resources that are needed to drive the industrialization of our region and to build infrastructure. We must use the fund to reduce the cost of capital and more effectively share the risk. At the same time, we must stop the loss of the funds that we already have. Every year our continent and our region tend to lose vast sums of money through illicit financial flows through transfer mispricing under declared exports as well as smuggling. We need more than funds to build these industrial economies requires skills. We need institutions of learning that are able to build a regional pool of knowledge and expertise to which all member states contribute and from which all member states can draw. We need harmonized laws and regulations that enable greater investment and seamless execution. Now the industrialization of economies will not be founded solely on our natural resource endowment. Our region has identified things or products like pharmaceuticals, automatives, automotives rather, agroprocessing, paper and power, furniture and increasingly the innovation and semiconductor value chains as drivers of industrialization. Now these are the areas that we must go into. years ago, I met a business person who said, "Africa is replete with wild animals." And he said, "You Africans, why don't you just forget trying to get into things like semiconductors and just focus on your animals?" I said to him, "Are you mad? Are you truly truly mad and you think we live in the jungle?" And I said to him and I referred to what Pixika Isam Kasim said. I said you are going to see how Africa is going to emerge and Africa is going to be the future of the continent. [applause] We now need to demonstrate if not to anyone but to ourselves that we have the capability, we have the focus, we have the determination and in areas such as pharmaceuticals. The case is especially urgent. It can no we can no longer accept that we import almost everything that heals us. Now I saw this during the time of COVID when the AU when I was chair of the AU or when South Africa was the chair of the AU during COVID when we faced the most dangerous period in the lives of the 1.3 billion people on our continent. We found ourselves at a loss because we didn't have the vaccines. We had to go elsewhere to go and purchase vaccines. And even then it was a dangerous time, a selfish time as well because your more developed economy countries in the north had hoarded all the vaccines in the world. Even those that they did not need, they hoarded them and held them close to themselves. And when we said we wanted them, they would not even release them. and we had to get into major fights with them to finally get them to release the vaccines. That is when the penny really dropped as they say. That is when it became a more serious realization that we actually do need to stand on our own. And as they often say in the past, black men, you are on your own. And we realized that indeed we are on our own. And that is when we said we now need to step up the whole process of manufacturing our own pharmaceuticals, our own therapics, our own vaccines and our own personal protective equipment. Our answer must be health sovereignty pursued in line with the Laka agenda on global health initiatives. The establishment of a Saddak pulled procurement mechanism is a welcome catalyst for accelerated industrialization in the manufacturing of health products. And this we tried and tested during the time of CO because all of our countries were running helter and skeltera around the world trying to get PPEs to start and we were going all over and it was a time when creativity came to the four. We then forged and got a young person in Sineagal to develop a platform and a system through which we could purchase PPEs at a very good cost and we just needed to call a few heads of state and they helped us. We put this platform together and many of our countries could then acquire their PPEs at a much cheaper rate. The same thing then started happening with the vaccines. When we purchase together, we create the market certainty that manufacturers in our region need before they will invest. We've got 430 million people in Saddak. And if our manufacturers would know that each of our 16 countries would be willing and prepared to purchase headache pills would be willing to purchase whatever pills, diabetes, you name it, or even vaccines from the various centers that we will establish in a number of our own countries, big or small, where we support one another. Then investment becomes easier and possible and it becomes our own and we no longer have to be rushing to other parts of the world. Our young people who are scientifically oriented are then able to innovate, are even able to enter the studies knowing that yes there is a future in pharmaceutical manufacturing in the health sector in southern Africa that is growing. That certainty does two things at once. It creates equitable access to medicines and health commodities for our people. And it and it creates jobs. It cultivates expertise. And it stimulates industrial activity here at home in our 16 countries. A region that supplies the world with the minerals of the future should not have to wait upon the world for its medicines. To realize our region's potential, we do need to build an integrated infrastructure. We need to develop corridors. We need to overcome the limitations of geography and history by developing trade and transport routes that bring pro producers, markets, and people closer together. And this is where government and business and labor and communities need to work together in all our 16 countries. We need to turn roots like the Maputo, North South, Transcalahari, Bayra and Loito corridors into living arteries of commerce. We need to understand that a corridor is much more than a road or a railway. It is a new and innovative approach to customs, to border protocols, to tracking regulations and industrial planning. Now, these corridors must carry power. They must carry data and people. In energy, we have committed to ex expediting the interconnections linking Angola, Namibia, Malawi, Mosmbique, Tanzania, and Zambia, bringing more of our region into effective power trading through the Southern African power pool. We have committed to universal access to electricity, reaching remote communities through mini grids and off-grid solutions rather than waiting for national grids that may take decades and decades to arrive. We've committed to harmonizing the regulatory framework that allow independent power producers and independent transmission operators to invest with confidence. And we are diversifying towards utility scale solar and wind towards green hydrogen and towards battery storage as well. We must build a southern African capability that has embraced the potential of the digital economy. The cost of a telephone call between two SADC countries. The cost of sending money home across a border. The cost of clearing a payment between our banks. These are taxes on integration that have imposed that we have imposed on ourselves. That is why we must work together on seamless digital payments and reduce remittance uh costs as well. As we participate in the global digital economy, there is a real danger that we will reproduce the trade patterns of the past. Already we are exporting data and importing intelligence. The information generated by our people on our farms, on our clinics, our banks and our minds increasingly leaves this region to be analyzed, to be processed and organized elsewhere. And they even want to go a lot further. They want to get our health data. They want us to reach agreements to sign agreements where we will allow them to mine and examine our health condition all of us as a region so that they can then begin to map out exactly what they want to produce for pharmaceuticals for us. So they want to get that intelligence. Now this refined data returns to us as a service or as products that we must thou pay for. The systems that will run our economies are being trained on our data. They are being built on computing capacity that we do not own. They are being crafted in buildings that we do not host drawing on electricity that we do not sell. If we are serious about industrialization, we cannot stop at refineries and smelters. We need to develop the computing capacity, the connectivity and appropriate skills to ensure that the value of our data is extracted here at source. As we develop new industries, we must realize some of our oldest or revitalize some of our oldest. Agriculture is our largest employer in this region and being susceptible to vagaries of climate change and global trade disruptions. It is also one of our most valuable sectors. That is why agriculture must become our most industrialized sector. We need modern irrigation systems, seeds development that should be resided here. We need to advance the veterary science and the latest in agroprocessing technology so that the value is captured close to the farm and employment is created in the small towns and the villages of southern Africa. We have a great resource in agriculture and we must exploit it. We must build a region of entrepreneurs if we are to make vision 2050 real. Southern Africa must develop more and more entrepreneurs, capable entrepreneurs who are going to be innovative and creative and build serious businesses. Access to large regional markets is of little use to an enterprise that cannot obtain working capital that cannot meet an export standard and that cannot discover who in the next country wishes to buy what it makes. The development of medium, small, and microenterprises must be treated as core to industrial policy. Southern Africa's industrial revolution will ultimately not be driven by the large conglomerates of the past that are listed on some stock exchanges. It will be driven by tens of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses that bring innovation, that are agile, that are youthled, that are womenowned, that are competitive, and that are able to play a critical role in the economies of our 16 countries. This matters most to all most of all rather to the women and the young people of our region. Around 40% of the people of this region live below the poverty line. Most of these are women and young people. Many of them rely on small medium enterprises for income and survival. Yet women who build businesses still meet a lot of barriers. They struggle to own and use productive assets. They are excluded from finance. They cannot reach markets. They are locked out of the procurement systems. In South Africa, the Women Economic Assembly has established has been established as a women-led platform to secure procurement opportunities both from the public and the private sector for enterprises that are owned by women. And I wish we can spread this to various other countries so that we put the women of our region on a much upper platform so that they can succeed. They can run successful enterprises and they can show leadership. And I see that there are a number of women here who are not yet even aware of that. [applause] Now, drawing on this experience, we should work to strengthen small enterprises by mobilizing a wider range of financing institutions. We should draw them into the regional value chains through a policy environment that opens markets. Vision 2050 makes the fundamental point that there can be no meaningful regional integration if it leaves out half of our people and that half of our people are the women of this region and they cannot be left behind. They cannot be left behind. [applause] Now in a region with abundant natural resources, our most precious asset is our people. Our population is young and growing. More than half of the people in our community are under the age of 30. That already tells you what the future portends. This is our greatest strategic asset. Not only because they can clock and clock but because the future belongs to them. It is they are the engine of our region's future. But a demographic dividend is not conferred by numbers alone. It is a dividend that is earned through deliberate and sustained investment. It is earned by enabling young people to gain knowledge and by knowledge I mean knowledge that is needed for the economies of the future for the industries of the future. It is no use for young people to be learning about uh things that drove the economies of the past. It is no use. Young people must now be not only techsavvy, they must be AIvy. They must be composing and and creating what we will need in the future. Now across this region are young people who did everything that was asked of them. They stayed in school. They passed. Even those who are now on the gallery, they will pass. I know that and they have borrowed money to study. [applause] Number of them have borrowed money to study. Some of them get funding from the state. But now too now too many of those young people sit at home with a qualification and with no employment. Youth unemployment is one of the greatest threats to the stability and the cohesion and the [clears throat] progress of every country in our region. Nearly every country in our region has exactly the same challenge and problem that we have here in South Africa and it is one of the foremost obstacles to the realization of vision 2450. If we are to progress, we need to create economic opportunities for young people. Our schools, our universities, and our technical institutions, vocational colleges and research institutions are essential instruments through which we enable our young people to realize their potential. But these institutions are only as effective as the foundation on which they are built. It is a foundation that is established in the earliest years of the lives of our youth. A child whose growth is stunted carries that loss for a lifetime. No university can adequately reverse or undo it. No industrial policy can properly compensate for it. Under the human and social capital development pillar of vision 2050, we must scale up our investment in maternal health and in early nutrition until stunting has been eradicated from this region. Yes, we do have stunting of children in this region. We must ensure that all children have food, water and shelter, that they are kept safe and that their development needs the development needs are met on an ongoing basis. We must follow these efforts through into adolescence. These are the years in which we must invest in the skills of this century in digital literacy and in health services that a young person can use without fear or shame. These are the years in which we must confront with what needs to be done in a young person's life. We must also deal with other challenges that are also experienced in this region. Child marriage, teenage pregnancy, and a digital divide that leaves young rural people behind. Each of the barriers that we remove adds to the productive capacity of our economies. Vision 2050 cannot be achieved without a healthy population. We seek a harmonized regional health system in which the standard of care that a person receives does not depend on which side of a border they happen to live. Our region still carries far too heavy a burden of maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent death. Most of these deaths are preventable. They cannot be acceptable. The withdrawal of official development assistance that has exp has exposed how much of our health provision has rested on decisions that are taken elsewhere. When another country decided that they are going to stop their aid programs, all of a sudden many of our country's health systems went into a tail spin. meaning that we were just too dependent on other count's assistance and had not really lived up to finding ways, however meager our resources may be, to develop and to strengthen our own health systems. If we are to achieve health security as well as sovereignty, we need to realize our commitments under the Abuja declaration to allocate at least 15% of our national budgets to improving our health care systems. The COVID 19 pandemic taught us that no one is safe until everyone is safe. It taught us that disease does not respect borders. I pause here for a minute and want to applaud this university for the absolutely sterling work that it did not only for South Africa but for the continent during the period of COVID 19. [applause] [applause] This university displayed its outstanding capability when it came to advising government but more importantly which was a benefit to say our continent was when it led us in research in actually discovering various strains of com covid 19. You may recall that Omicron Omicron variant of COVID 19 was identified and developed by researchers at this university and we were the first in the world. [applause] So I may be taking a little long but I do need to pay tribute to the scientists to the researchers to the intellectuals to the academics of this university as well as to the leadership and say we pay homage and tribute to you for the excellence that is displayed in this university. So all of you students who are here you are very lucky to be learning at this outstanding and leading university. We are very lucky. [applause] So going on as a region we must engage robustly with one voice in the reform of the global health architecture. Health security is very important to all of us and you only realize it the day you are sick that we needed to have good health security. The people of this region will not reach their potential for as long as division and discrimination remain. We must break down the barriers of race, of religion and of tribe. We must ensure equal opportunity for women and men, for city dwellers, and for rural people, for young and old. Yet there can be no equality between men and women for as long as women are not safe. Across our region, gender-based violence and femicide where different faces but have the same root. This is a pandemic that has roots in attitudes in institutions and practices that denigrate and discriminate against women. Our collective response must focus on prevention, support for survivors, stricter laws, improved prosecutions, and economic empowerment of women. Our response must be comprehensive. in defense and in respect of the women of our region. We must respect the women of our region. [applause] We must build a more sexual We must build more sexual offenses courts, but we must do much more to address the causes of these crimes. these heinous crimes where men use women either as toys where they attack them and abuse them. We must fund prosecution, but we must also fund prevention. As a community, we must be clear that prevention does not begin with women. It begins with the men and the boys in our homes, our schools, our churches, our workplaces and our tverns who must be raised to reject violence and abuse and who must be raised to respect women and who must be res raised to protect and assist women. If we are serious about building an integrated region, we must build a southern Africa in which the equal rights of all peoples are respected, where all people are treated decently and equally. We cannot submit to the intimidation and harassment of people seen as coming from elsewhere. As South Africans, we are deeply concerned and ashamed that nationals from other countries have in recent months been subjected to discrimination and ill treatment. I repeat, as South Africans, we are deeply concerned and ashamed that people from other nations, some whose leaders are here, were treated badly and were even forced to leave the country under threat of violence. The criminal actions of a few within our communities are a repudiation of the solidarity upon which this Southern African community is built. We cannot preach integration at summits and practice exclusion in the streets of our countries. I say this as a South African to South Africans first of all, but this is a broader challenge to which we must apply ourselves as a community. Southern Africa has borne witness to the movement of people over millennia. Our people are the products of migration. Migration accounts for much of the diversity as well as the vibrancy and richness of this region. You just have to move to our various countries in Southern Africa and you will find people speaking almost similar languages that you find in each of our countries. Meaning that we are one people. meaning that we have moved across our region with ease. Now, as we work towards vision 2050, we should seek a region in which people are able to freely move according to established principles, protocols, and laws. This means that we must work together to address the conditions that drive migration. has been a joy for me to go to a Zimbabwe and find that there are people who speak the same language that I speak vendor speaking people and I've been amazed how did you get here and they ask how did you get to where you come from so that is the beauty of the the richness of our region when it comes to where we all live and where we all come from we We need to work together to address conflict, instability, governance failure, poverty, and social discord. And we need to create equal economic opportunity and build inclusive institutions of governance. We seek a region where people move out of choice, not out of desperation. None of what we seek for our region is achievable without peace. Investment does not flow where there is conflict. People's basic social needs cannot be provided for in a war zone. An economic corridor cannot operate where territory is contested. The situation in the eastern DRC remains the gravest test of our collective resolve in southern Africa. Millions of fellow Africans have been displaced, have been killed. No, thousands of them have been killed, but millions have been moved and displaced. A country of extraordinary mineral wealth has become a site of conflict and suffering. Soldiers from our community were deployed to support efforts to achieve peace and stability. They served with courage, with dignity and commitment. Some did not return home. We pay tribute to those who gave their lives for peace. We owe it to them and their families and to the people of the DRC to continue to seek a peaceful resolution to a conflict that has caused much destruction and hardship in Mosmbique. We welcome the progress that is being made, the inclusive national dialogue and the signing of the political commitment that underpins it. In Madagascar, our panel of elders under the leadership of former President Joyce Banda has undertaken several missions in support of a process that must be Malagasi owned and Malagasi led. This community records is gratitude to her and also to the envoys that she works with. Our task is not to prescribe outcomes to the people of any member state. It is to hold open the space within which they may determine their own future. And in support of this principle, we must ensure that our election observation missions are adequately resourced and permitted to report plainly. We have established institutions of accountability that must be strengthened and must be allowed to do their work. The achievement of vision 2050 depends in large measure on the effectiveness of our response to changes in our climate. Our region is increasingly subject to successive seasons of drought, of cyclones, and of floods. Our materological services warn of a growing El Nino effect in the coming season. That means reduced harvests, lower exports, pressure on our currencies, a higher cost of living, hunger amongst our people. Yet, while we confront drought at one moment, we suffer catastrophic floods at another moment. We need to be ready for this. Homes, clinics, bridges and roads and rails are usually just swept away and we have to start all over again. Lives are lost and livelihoods are destroyed. We all know the destructive effects of changing climate. In April 2022, these very hills here in KZN were struck by floods that took more than 400 lives, destroyed homes, and closed the port on which this region depends. Resilience must therefore be built into every endeavor that we make to install infrastructure. We must strengthen the SADC humanitarian and emergency operations center so that our response is regional but it must also be immediate rather than national and belated. We must act before a disaster strikes rather than scramble for assistance after it has struck. We must develop a common position on loss and damage and speak with one voice on international forums. We are least responsible in this region for the climate damage that is taking place around the world that is having an effect on our region. So therefore it requires that when we go to international forest we must speak with one voice and be able to articulate a very clear message about what climate damage is doing to us. Let me return in closing to the vision of Pixley Gaisaka. He spoke of chains dissolving, of arid plains turning red with harvest, of African cities becoming seats of learning and of science. And he declared that the brighter day was rising upon Africa. As we gather 120 years later, we should define the meaning of the brighter day. We should also be able to see exactly how this is having an impact on a rising southern Africa. It should mean a refinery, not only a shaft. It should mean a canning plant, not only a farm, that is an agroprocessing plant and not only where we see just a field where we plant. It should mean electricity generated in one country lighting up a home in another country. It should mean a car that is assembled in one Saddak country using parts that are manufactured in another Saddak country and produced finally in another country. It should mean a young woman graduating from this university and building a company that seamlessly trades in all our SADC countries. That vision 2050 should mean that a child that is born in any village in any town or city within our region having genuine prospect for life and the talents that she can get that can benefit her life anywhere else in our region. There are many students in this hall today. The Southern African vision 2050 that we describe will not be run by those of us who are taking our seats tomorrow or day after tomorrow at the Intercontinental Hall. Those decisions will be taken by those students. It will be run or they are the ones who will run it. It will be run by the students who are sitting here. This vision 2050 is not our document. It is the document of the students who are here. And you as students, you are entitled to demand an account of what we did with this document. And I wish to thank the University of Kzadan for hosting this lecture and for its contribution to the realization of the Saddak vision 2050. This is a university that is doing a number of things in real practice to put our region on the map and they even want to take us into space as a university and we thank them for that. [applause] Yes, I should say they are developing rockets. rockets that they want to shoot into space and they're doing a great job. We welcome in particular the four pillars identified by the university advancing regional value chains in agroprocessing and critical minerals and researching ethical AI and digital inclusion. combining indigenous knowledge and innovation systems with climate science and agroeconologicals resilience and building human capital through youth and women and entrepreneurship programs. Ah that's quite a lot. Through policy dialogues and briefs, interun university research networks and multis sectoral consultations, the university has fully embraced its responsibility to contribute to the development, transformation, and integration of our region. Now, this is university speak. This is what they wanted me to say and I'm saying it [applause and cheering] now. Our 120 years ago, the renewal, this is me now, the renewal of Africa was a proposition to be defended to be defended against a hostile world. It is no longer a proposition. If we think about it more carefully, it is a program of work. It has now become what we must do. It has actions. It assigns responsibilities and it also has deadlines. The renewal of our continent, ladies and gentlemen, students and all, is imminently achievable. We are no longer where Pixika Isakas was more than 100 years ago. 100 years later and more. We are now in a new era and we can see exactly what he prophesied about being achievable. The realization of our vision for Southern Africa is definitely within our means. So what now behoves on us is for us to make good on our commitment to to [clears throat] build a peaceful, inclusive, competitive and industrialized Southern Africa. So let us become a place where all citizens regardless of place or circumstances may enjoy sustainable economic well-being, justice and freedom. So the work is cut out for us. All we need to do is to go out and do the work. Students have their role to play. We as politicians have our role to play. Business leaders, academics have their role to play and everyone has their role to play. So I thank you. I thank you for giving me this great opportunity of being at this great university of our region. Thank you very much. [applause] [cheering] You may be seated inu. Mr. President, the student would say you have clogged it. Let's do it. He has clogged it. Clogged it. I'm not saying it. Let's do He has clogged it. He has clogged it. He has clogged it. Mr. President, I was sitting next to the ministers of foreign affairs because Minister Lamula as the chair of the council of ministers delegated me the responsibility of of of working with the ministers of foreign affairs the albeit for a short period and he has tendencies of taking over when he thinks I'm not delivering properly and the ministers of foreign affairs have whispered to me to say they have the determination, the tenacity and the capacity to drive the execution of implementation plans and targets for vision 20150. With that, we thank you, Mr. President, for the lecture. [applause] Because me and Mr. Lamula, we're masquerading as host. We know you've got a very very very congested program as you prepare for your counterparts, the presidents and prime ministers, the heads of state to who are arriving for the summit. So would like Mr. President with your permission to allow me to get the house to rise as you take leave. As we are waiting for Mr. President as he's still greeting there is another leader of a party which is represented in parliament is my colleagues is my colleague Minister Zanelono of the Panaffrican Congress [applause] We may be seated. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to give you an opportunity to be serenated by the band as you stretch because we're going to go to the the next session which is a panel discussion and the panel discussion will be led by Miss Noipo Shabala. Lala who's going to be moderating it today and they are going to discuss what will move us beyond broad aspiration towards practical questions of financing inal capacity infrastructure industrialization trade skills innovation accountability and citizen participation. We also hope that this discussion will contribute ideas that can travel beyond this auditorium into classrooms, boardrooms, communities, government institutions and regional processes. We are going Miss Chavalala will then introduce her panelists when she comes over. But now let's have the band entertaining us. Thank you. >> [music] [music] >> There are [music] Can [music] [singing] anyway [singing] [music] [singing] [music] anyway? Anyway, [singing] [singing] [music] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] anyway, for [singing] [music] my [singing] [screaming] [music] more Geria. [singing] >> [music] >> la. [singing] Open your window. Anyway, [singing] open your door. >> [screaming] >> Mary. [screaming] [singing] [music] Ghana [singing] [music] jingle way [singing] [music] jingle. Anyway, [singing] anyway, [singing and music] [singing] anywhere [singing] la. [singing] Thank you. Mur mimo m. Oh m. Oh m. for Hey. I'm belly shina. soon. [music] I I God I [music] know [singing] I go in >> [singing] >> Oh [singing] la. Oh. Oh. >> [music and singing] >> Oh. Oh. [singing] [singing] >> Thank you so much. Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. Aim Pind with another round of applause please. Thank you so very much. [cheering] Distinguished guests, I see there are a lot of people on their feet. Might I kindly request us to kindly please take our seats as we prepare ourselves for the panel discussion that is about to commence. If you're upstanding and you're in the room, might I invite you to kindly please take your seats out of respect for our panelists that I'm going to be inviting onto stage very shortly. Allow me to stand on all the protocol that's been observed and just to say San Bonani, good morning Dang, Bombia, Bonjour and of course Moro. My name is Noipo Shabalala and I have the privilege of moderating this panel. I'm going to invite my panelists to join me on stage and we'll then frame the conversation from there and go into the questions. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, won't you please help me welcome Minister Parkst, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition from South Africa. Let's give him a round of applause. Let's welcome Dr. Vasu Gaon. He is the founder and executive director of the African Center for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes, better known as Accord. Let's give him a big round of applause. And rounding up our panel, we're also joined by Dr. Lupna Nadvi. She's a senior lecturer clearly here at UK Zen. [cheering] and of course uh lecturing in the political sciences. In the interest of time, I'd like to quickly share how we're going to run this panel. I'm going to keep the panelists for a brief moment in a moderated posture and in a moderated conversation, but we're not going to spend the hour speaking at you distinguished guests. We're going to open up this conversation. We're going to include you in the conversation. And so I'm inviting you to arm yourselves with questions and comments that will allow you to have a share of voice in this conversation. And so with that, allow me to take my seat and then to guide us into the discussion. [laughter] >> May I please ask you to sit on the side? >> Sure. >> [snorts] >> So as a way of getting into the conversation and framing the discussion, allow me just to land that we've heard about vision 2050. We've heard about the gains that the region has experienced. We've also heard the president speaking honestly and transparently about some of the challenges that still confront the region. Ours is not to talk about what the aspiration for SAT should be, but rather to ask some very pointed questions about how we accelerate the momentum. How do we make faster gains in the areas where we are already to see starting to see fruit being born? And of course to answer the question of how do we partner more effectively to bring about the ambition that was set on that day on the 1st of April in 1980 when Saddak was formed. As promised to the audience, we're going to be quite sharp and concise in this panel and then we'll take a few questions from the audience before we wrap. Minister Dao, I'd like to start off with you and to invite you to give us some directional guidance by asking you the question if you could identify two or three big shifts that you think would have a marked impact on industrialization in the region, on improving trade in the region, but also in strengthening the value chains in the region. What would be those two or three things that are not only relevant for this conversation but for everyone else who carries the mandate for SAD and vision 2050? >> Thank you very much Nosup and good afternoon. Firstly let me say that the issue of infrastructure remains critical and this relates to logistics infrastructure. The reality is that we don't have adequate rail networks that are integrated, road networks that are integrated, ports and mechanisms that enable and facilitate trade. But when we're talking about infrastructure, we're also talking about economic infrastructure. So one of our initiatives in terms of our revised uh special industrial strategy or special economic zones policy is the introduction of crossber economic zones. So crossber special economic zones where we can be able to collaborate with sister countries in [clears throat] the region to build economic infrastructure that enables and facilitates industrialization. >> And many sister countries said to us particularly South Africa. >> We can't continue having South African products on our shelves without South African industrialists investing in our economy. So we also want to look at you as investors in our economy and not just as people that trade in our economy. So when we develop this policy we're also responding to the reality that we have to grow together to enable uh regional integration. The second issue is about demand integr demand aggregation if you like and I'm saying demand aggregation because in reality our own small economies are not large enough >> to enable us to be competitive in industries that we want to participate in. You know South Africa produced one of the first electric cars but now we're importing electric cars. were importing electric cars because there wasn't enough demand on in South Africa in Sak and on the African continent that enables that to be able to that enables that to be competitive as an industry. So if you don't have your own demand and you're going to depend on someone else's demand, you're going to be limited. I mean part of the reality is that if you say we want to develop batteries because we have the lithium, we have the cobalt, etc. But we don't buy electric cars. Sure. So we're trying to produce for for somebody something that we ourselves don't consume. So if we are able to aggregate demand, I think that would help us. And the last point is around supply chain integration. And and I'll make a practical example here in the automotive industry where we've been discussing particularly uh in the Southern Africa Customs Union in relation to the automotive industry. How do we integrate supply chains? How do we ensure that for example copper wiring happens in Botswana for the card that's manufactured in KZ 10? How to ensure that uh the upholstery and seat manufacturing happens in Lutu? How to ensure that uh uh aftermarket development of product uh those that are replacement parts and so on happen in Namibia and Esatini. In that way you're talking about real integration that's not theoretical. It's about saying to individual industrialists and to companies and sectors where are the opportunities where this can practically happen and this is a real conversation that we've been having with the automotive industry and a program that we've set targets for and that I think is the practicality of implementing regional integration that is required. Minister, before I move on, just very quickly, if we take these three high level points that you've given us, a focus on logistics, uh, uh, economic, uh, zones, um, ensuring that we, we're investing across the region, so we're growing together, uh, demand aggregation so that we're more competitive, but also seeing a real integration of supply chains. Let's imagine we are reconvening here at UK ZN 10 years from now. What would you want to see as a definitive change in the productive economy of the region that you think would be evidence that we are well on our way towards vision 2050? >> Most important is industrial capability. It is industrial infrastructure. But industrialization also happens at the back of innovation and research. So we need to build capability in the region for us to be able to produce the products here. We need to be able to do the research. So we can't always depend on somebody coming and saying we've identified the critical minerals in your region. We know what we want to do with them. Can you sell them to us? And then we start saying beneficiaries and so on. It must be that we integrate the work that our universities, our research centers are are doing to enable us to leverage of the intellectual capability that we have to be able to grow. So for me what's important is that we need to be able to develop own product and invest in the infrastructure therefore have industrial infrastructure that enables industrialists to invest and that enables products to be produced on the continent. Thank you very much, Minister. And I I I certainly see some of the students leaning in because I think that point really speaks to their opportunity to not just be beneficiaries of a vision 2050 but to be active architects in the creation of and the implementation of that vision. Um Dr. Gondon, let me come to you because one of the things that is very clear about vision 2050 is that if we are going to achieve economic transformation, regional integration, there is a prerequisite for that and that prerequisite is a foundation of peace, of security, of good governance and stability uh in the region. My question to you is, what do you think we could do differently as a region that could make us a little bit better at anticipating uh some of the political, the social, and maybe even the security pressures that could pose themselves as a risk to our collective ambition for development? >> No, thank you very much, Noipu. Uh firstly let me say that I think many of the speakers who came up here including Minister Enchani uh said they were worried about losing their jobs. Uh I'm not too worried about losing my job but I'm worried about being arrested here. Uh you know the last time I stood on this platform was 1985. It was the state of emergency. I was the president of the student council at this university [cheering] [applause] and uh I was addressing thousands of students. It was a very emotional day when they announced a state of emergency and the apartate security police was outside waiting to arrest us. I see some of my colleagues here who were also arrested and spent a long time in detention. So yes, this place has a lot of memories uh coming back after 40 years to address another audience. But I was assured by the uh president's uh official Mike Low. Mike said, "Vasu, don't worry. There would be many police outside, but they're not going to arrest you today." [laughter] uh no zipper when we come to this question of uh conflict and development and the link between and the nexus between peace and development. >> Uh we have to move from responding to conflict to anticipating conflict as you correctly point out. Now Saddak has many mechanisms to deal with that. We have been now uh ourselves as a court also involved with SADC over the last several years the last 20 years or so developing and sharpening those mechanisms. But what we are seeing is that conflicts are getting more and more complex. That's the first uh issue we are dealing as the president said we're on the verge of a Elnino crisis now that's going to bring a lot of climate changes that will drive conflict drought etc. uh we are seeing insurgencies. There's a sharp rise in insurgencies, sharp rise in organized criminal syndicates. So all of these things are coalescing at exactly the same time bringing huge complexity. At the core of all of this is poverty, unemployment and inequality. >> And therefore the uh SADC vision 2020 2050 >> is designed to address particularly that we can't talk about uh silencing guns on the continent or silencing guns in our region. Uh we have to talk about addressing the socioeconomic drivers of conflict. And let's take a very simple issue. Not a simple issue, a very complex issue. I see our mayor is sitting here in the front. He was dealing recently with a very complex issue. The issue of violence against foreigners here and the issue around undocumented foreigners in this country in the province. It's not an easy issue that we're dealing with. uh if you look for example uh foreigners have been coexisting with South Africans for all of 30 years now it's not that they have not been in South Africa over this period but we have seen one incident in 2015 uh violence against foreigners and now we have seen another incident of violence against foreigners this is a warning shot this is telling us that these conflicts are going to come. This is early warning. >> Yeah. >> Now what we need is early action. And what is the early action? The early action has to be on two sides. This is not just an issue of violence against foreigners. This is a socioeconomic issue. This is about 2050. This is about addressing the issue on the substantive side on the one side and then on the psychological side on the other side. So if we're talking about identity because this is a question of identity >> then we need to move away from narrow identities. What 2015 2050 talks about is evolving a broader political identity a political identity of a region not the narrow identities. We're talking about not nine economies that SADC sadcc started with. We're talking about 16 economies. 16 economies that can't be competitive unless they become one regional economy. Becoming one regional economy means that we must move away from the migration through desperation to mobility to through opportunity. And let me end by saying how do you deal with that? So 2050 will deal with that by addressing the deep structural questions. That's what Minister Ptow is talking about when he talks about industrialization, when he talks about transport corridors etc. that's to address how do we stimulate our economies and how do we create employment etc. A second issue I want to address and I'm very happy that the students are sitting here today also because this university produced also another individual here at the medical school in the late 60s and the early '7s called Steven Banto. >> Yeah. Now the president has left but the president himself was a member of the same organization working alongside Steven Banuo the South African students organization Sasso and Steven Banubiko came up with a philosophy the philosophy of black consciousness to deal with the hierarchies and fragmentation of identities that apath had created and tried to bring people who were on the other side of what they called white or non-white and said no we need to not be known about anything. We need to bring back our dignity and create an identity called black consciousness and raise our conscious consciousness as black people. Now I think the challenge for us today when we are talking about one political communities how do we move from a philosophy of black consciousness to a philosophy of African consciousness? >> What does it mean to be an African? That's that's the challenge that and I'm I'm putting that challenge to the students that are here. We were all children of black consciousness. This is where we came from. You are children of African consciousness. So you need to think about how do you create this philosophy of African consciousness. How do you as young people? Because when we stood here in this university as students, the same age as you were, we were seized with this idea of what underpins our existence. You need to be seized with what underpins your existence. Tomorrow, you can't be successful if you're only South African. You will be successful if you're African in a broader political context. So the challenge for you, how do you evolve a philosophy of African consciousness drawn from the transition of black consciousness to African consciousness? I >> I do think that deserves a round of applause. It certainly does. Um and I I I think you've given a a a thesis uh question to some of the students who might be uh in their masters or even looking at their PhD studies. But you've also put a bit of a challenge because I know that uh uh uh Dr. Nadi you're a political scientist in essence and so as Dr. Gondon talks about this idea of a political identity anchoring the region that must resonate with you at some level. But the question I want to bring to you uh really sits again goes back to vision 2050. When we look at that point of arrival, it won't just be because institutions have delivered programs. That's not the success indicator for vision 2050. Instead, it will be whether people have actually experienced the benefits of regional integration in their everyday experiences. So, the question to you is how do we make vision 2050 and regional integration more meaningful and more tangible for people in this uh region? The president specifically highlighted uh some of the more marginalized groups. He spoke about women. He spoke about young people. He spoke about rural people. I want you to keep that same lens and as you answer the question of how do we make this ambition more tangible and more meaningful for the people of the region. Thank you very much for that very important question. You have to uh take the program to the people because you have to have a bottom up approach. If the people are not involved involved in the uh benefits that they are supposed to be getting, you're not going to uh get very far. So therefore, it's very important to have this bottom up approach where whatever policies exist, whatever programs there are that SEAD is creating, it involves the people on the ground. Now, let me give you an example. Basically, when you have, for example, um community- based organizations, a lot of them out in the rural areas or uh in townships um and and just across the region, they are the ones that are working on the ground to deliver the substantive uh programs. Uh women for example, who need uh support uh youth uh young people who need uh assistance. So there has to be a um dialogue and a connection between the subject level of um you know uh the government level and uh policy which translates into deliverables. It can't just be wonderful ideas on paper. So for example, pillar three talks about uh the development of human uh and social capital. And so that is what is meant by that you've got to link it to the people on the ground. There are a lot of uh organizations that set themselves up uh because they see there's a need in the community. There's a gap. There's a need for for example a crash in a village or a need for a woman's organization uh for women to be able to support themselves and so on and so on. So communities come together and they create these uh organizations. But in order for them to be sustainable, in order for them to uh be able to uh deliver on the services or the programs that they have, they've got to get funding. They've got to get support. So integration means that you've got to have people-to-people connection. How wonderful it would be for us here in South Africa to be able to connect to uh you know uh programs youth [snorts] and women in say Tanzania or Zimbabwe or Zambia on a people-to-people level. So that is what regional integration is ultimately about. I >> I think that's a very practical uh and clear path that you you're giving us. You're saying that we've got to close the gap between where policy sits and where policy operates. What I'm hearing you say is that we've got to identify the organizations that are doing the work that own the relationships that can point out people at an individual level, empower them, fund them, capacitate them to do the work. I'm going to come back, Minister, with a final round before I go to to the audience. And in this round, I I'd like us to uh begin to really cast our eyes perhaps to the next decade. Um what vision 2050 does is that it gives us a a destination towards which we work. These questions now are about making visible the work of the next decade. So Minister, let's maybe go back to the practical man mechanics of integration if I will. We know that regional value chains work best when business is able to move goods and uh inputs and capital. Uh even the president spoke about uh the movement of people and knowledge as well. And I suppose the question that I want to bring to you then minister is how do we ensure that there's alignment between national priorities and regional opportunities such that member states are able to see that uh regional prosperity is an accelerant and can be an accelerant for national prosperity. >> Well firstly I think that it's important that we avoid the race to the bottom. >> Sure. And I'm saying the race to the bottom because we can easily out incentivize each other >> and in the process of out incentivizing each other find that investors are incentive hopping. So they're going to different countries >> and trying to invest as opposed to a situation where we have complimentarity and we know that the capability in this country is this and therefore we're going to concentrate our efforts there and we must start celebrating the progress that's been made. So we should be able to say we celebrate a refinery in Angola as part of our energy security going forward >> in the region. >> We celebrate the drilling that's happening in the on the Namibian coastline as as part of getting oil into the region and creating security from that point of view. It is important that we celebrate those because it says that we are building on something that's already there. We don't always start on the basis of a future that we still need to define. We start on the basis of what do we have as assets that we can build on. And from a financing point of view, we also need to acknowledge that in fact we've got fairly advanced and capable financial institutions. And we don't always sorry spend enough time celebrating the work that they do. you know for there there's a project on the Richard's Bay uh industrial development zone. The investors are South African, Zimbabwean and Malay. Uh it is technology in titanium dioxide that we're currently importing that would be produced in South Africa uh for paint manufacturing and other products. It is funded by the African Development Bank, funded by the Africa export import bank, funded by the industrial development corporation in South Africa and also the public investment corporation and then some of the private banks. It's a project that is there that's leveraging on the institutions that we have on the continent. So let's build these institutions. Let's leverage what we have in these institutions and create institution or rather create growth from there. We shouldn't always depend on somebody else must give us the money when in fact we have the systems that we can build on. Minister, I think the the the the the earlier point I want to highlight first because I think it's such a powerful one that we shouldn't uh shouldn't miss and this caution uh that you raise about not out incentivizing each other because once we once we begin to think with the with the regional lens then we begin to see assets in different countries as regional assets uh and and and be able to put those assets to investors as part of a regional offering and not just a a ational offering. Um it it's a pity that we don't have a financeier particularly on the panel but I'm hoping that maybe we might get a question or a comment from the audience that speaks to the role of financial institutions uh as you've highlighted uh minister Dr. I I want to come to you in this second round because what you've already uh help us helped us to understand that as we think about vision 2050 um we not only need to be thinking about it as a development strategy, we need to simultaneously be thinking about it as a conflict prevention and maybe anticipation strategy. I get the thesis. uh I get the the the the hypothesis and the question that you're putting into the room. I'm interested in what are the guardrails that need to be in place so that we do exactly that we don't make the mistake of assuming just the positive but we're also solving for the other direction for the unemployment the inequality the environmental uh shocks that have a regional effect so that the development strategy simultaneously lands as a conflict prevention strategy maybe two or three that you would say we need to look out for this >> I think the issue is around how do we build trust cooperation >> sure >> and confidence amongst the countries 16 countries in the region now you know a few years ago I hosted the Singaporean ambassador to South Africa in Durban for dinner we had a discussion around uh the Saddak region and He said to me, he said, you know, SAD, individual countries in SADC can't really be successful in a global market unless you come together as at that time 300 million today 400 million people and he said as ASEAN because he belongs to the ASEAN region. He said, "Assean and Saddak can really do business together and there's so much we can benefit from each other and our regions can develop prosperously." I said, "That's a great idea. Did you speak to the executive secretary of SAD?" Uh, and he said, "Yes, I spoke to the executive secretary of SADE is the predecessor of the current executive secretary and she thought it was she at the time, Stegamin Tax. She thought it was a great idea. I said and then what happened? >> What happened? >> Then individual SAD countries started trading with ASEAN not as a collective but individually. So unless we are able to cross that trust and uh cooperation barrier and build confidence. Now yesterday I had the privilege of hosting uh my brother here. I see him sitting in the audience. the foreign minister of Angola uh minister teta Antonio and his delegation at our offices and minister Antonio briefed us on a very uh innovative initiative that they are uh spearheading a hydro electric project in the Lito corridor and he said this is not going to be an Angolan project. Sure. >> This is going to be a SADC project and they're asking SAD countries to become investors and shareholders in this project and Mozambique signed up. Botswana has signed up and I spoke to our good minister here and he said that we have invested through the DBSA minister into the project. That's the kind of project that builds trust that builds co confidence and creates cooperation in the region. the more of that we can have. The president alluded it to to it in his speech when he said, "Why don't we find we build a car that one part is built in one country, one is built in the other?" You know, the great European peace. Well, it's crumbling a little bit now, but the great European peace for a long time was built on economic cooperation. Sure. Airbus, for example, Airbus is not a French plane. Yeah, >> Airbus is a European plane. The parts for Airbus are built in many different countries and then they come together and they have Airbus. Why can't we do the same in the Saddak region? So the ministers are here, the executive secretary is here. This is the challenge. We can't talk about 2050 as an aspiration. We need projects like the Lito corridor project, concrete examples that are in not in the pipeline that concrete has already been poured on the ground. Sure. I I I want to try my best to paraphrase that because again I think it's a masterclass uh that you've just given us this idea that um the way we we build and engineer trust is that we don't lead with trust, you actually lead with a project that forces the collaboration to come about. Uh and so hopefully then the idea of multi-jurisdictional projects not only become easier to do but become increasingly attractive to do because we've got the relational capacity and the trust in the system uh to be able uh to do that. Uh I love it when we are able to land at practical examples uh like the SCN example and the opportunity for regiontore region cooperation as you've highlighted. Thank you for that masterclass. Before I come to the audience, let me land the final question uh with you uh Dr. Na'vi. We know that the theme uh for this public lecture is quite deliberate about solidarity, equality and the magic two words for me at the end shared prosperity. I'm interested in your thoughts in how do we become more deliberate about how we share prosperity that comes from a growing region assuming we do all the things that minister has invited us to do assuming we get all the things right that Dr. Gener has spoken us to do. How do we ensure that the participants in that growth are all and that all is inclusive of young people, of women, of entrepreneurs, of rural people. How do we ensure that vision 2050 doesn't become for the benefit of just a few? Well, that is the eternal um you know challenge that we have because at the end of the day unless you have participation from everyone which requires that uh different stakeholders come together that people as I just said earlier about a bottomup approach. You have to actually be uh in the space where the young people are, where the women are, where all of the different communities that are supposed to be benefiting from the SADC vision are actually located. And it's very important that inclusivity means that you ensure their participation, not assume that it is just going to happen by itself. It that's why you say a deliberate uh attempt to make sure. Now what does solidarity mean? It means that we stand together and when there are challenges and when there are difficult issues we stand with each other and that's very important. The president alluded uh in his speech to this challenge that we've had recently of uh you know the xenophobia and the aphroia and this is something that I want to actually address because I think that it is a question that we we cannot just simply sweep under the carpet. you know, we have to deal with it. Just 10 minutes from where we are located, there are about 200 uh foreign nationals from different countries off the Saddic region that for example have been forced to sleep sleep on the pavement have been ejected from the communities that they were staying in that um you know they've lost their jobs. They were contributing members to this community. They had jobs. they were uh doing various you know sort of forms of employment. So there are some difficult questions that exist out there and we cannot run away from that in terms of how do we actually make all of this very real. We have to make sure that the people who you are trying to uh bring in are aware first of all. So education is very important. A lot of people don't actually know about vision 2050. This is another challenge. How do we take this into the rural communities? How do we educate our people in the languages that they speak? So, it's very important that you take the the programs down to the level where the people are. And important point to remember is that about 70% of the total population of Saddic countries just over 400 million is under 35. which means that it is the youth population that we actually have to uh take care of in the next 25 years. They're going to be looking for educational opportunities. They're going to be looking for um job opportunities, uh development, prosperity. So, it's very important that that demographic is taken care of and that requires us as of course our panelists uh have said that we focus on development. We bring different stakeholders together into a common space and most importantly be creative about it because when you start talking to different people ideas sure come to mind and new possibilities then come from that. So I think it's very important that we ensure um that we are at the grassroots level. I'd want to leave it with that. >> Dr. Navi, I think it's a great response because what it does, it is reminds us that there's always the danger of a performative inclusion, >> one that doesn't actually um reach people in the language that they understand that uh doesn't um always reach the demographic who then inherit the challenges that we're trying to navigate. Uh and one that is performative in the sense that it doesn't impart any awareness or education. And I think we hear that loud and clearly. What I'd love to do with your permission, my panelists, is to take two questions from the bottom. And I'm assuming it's all students on top. So, I'll take two questions from the top. I know that I've got a robing mic, a few roving mics available. Um, and I'm going to I see a few hands already popping up. I have one request. I have one request. As the microphone makes its way to you, won't you kindly, kindly, please be short, sharp, concise, and to the point. Introduce yourself and land your one question. If you have four questions, I'm going to ask you to take the other three, put them in your back pockets, and we can chat about them over lunch. Is that uh we all agreed? My students, please do not get left out. I'm not seeing your hands. I am insisting that we get some student hands. I see um a hand at the top now. I see some students there. Thank you very much. Let's take a a microphone right here in the front. Yes, you can give the microphone there. I have a lot more than four here at the bottom. So, I'm going to try my best to see how we land. My next question is going to go to a student. So, please let's have a microphone ready upstairs as well. Uh madame, please go ahead. >> Thank you. I'm a bit emotional. But anyway, let me move to the to the comment or question whatever it is. There was a mention of recent phobic attacks, but there's no mention of Ghana as drugs under the bridges. There's no mention of unlawfully occupied buildings. There's no mention of aband shops which are meant for South Africans who are paying taxes in this country. I'm I'm very emotional. I know it's electioneering guys. We are busy election and I've been there. I've worked for government and I feel sorry for the officials because they're going to work very hard around this time. Electioneering, please stop making us kids. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Uh Sabonga, for the benefit of the panel, if I can very briefly uh translate and then I'd like a student voice, please. Uh upstairs, let's get a microphone to the student voice. Uh Dr. Nadri, I think you'd be interested in this. Madame is raising the question to say uh she's acknowledging that we're talking about uh xenophobia and aphroia but she's saying equally important uh is the question of the criminal activity that we've also seen uh the the drugs the unlawful occupation uh the death of children in some instances and so she's asking can we please have a balanced conversation uh that takes in consideration both sides uh of this conversation I hope I've done justice to the comment. Ma, let me take a student voice upstairs. If you've got a microphone and you're a student, can you be up on your feet very quickly so we can see you? Is that you? >> All right. So, student is is running down. Okay. As the student runs down, uh, let's take this gentleman here who's already on his feet. My young sir, please go ahead. >> Greetings. Thank you for the opportunity. My name is Anelosana. maybe to comment or raise a question on one of the statement that was shared by the panelist members about maybe aggregating the demand within the SAT region. I think as mentioned by the president that if we can try to have parts of what we contribute towards the projects that we do I think aggregating demand is good but we can consider prioritizing increasing the supplies because doing that might might improve the trade balance into having more exports than imports. So I do believe considering more of improving supply then considering more of how we buy within ourself can improve the states and the balance of the saddak at large. >> Thank you very much. So minister I think that's definitely uh an thank you very much for for your question. I think that's certainly for you and Anel is saying what if we bought more amongst ourselves? What if we produced an increased supply? Would that have an impact on the trade balance uh in the region? Well done. Uh Anel, um where is my third question? Uh please uh can you please go ahead? Thank you very much. >> Um I'd just like to um greet everybody um who's under this place. Um my name is Amani Majopa and I am an agriculture student from the Peter Marsburg campus. Um so I'd just like to point um on something that the president did touch on. He did speak about how SADC has um a lot of economic value in terms of we have the industrial potential. We have the minerals in this place yet um I think we fail to acknowledge that most of these resources have been monopolized already. So how can we tap into this um industry which has been already monopolized so that the uh the general or the communities under the saddic can benefit from this industry. Thank you. Uh Amaningi before you sit down thank you for a brilliant question. So let me just make sure I've understood when you say that this industry has already been monopolized which industry are you referring to? >> Um so it's the mineral industry. Okay perfect. Thank you. Well done. Um, as a person from Merittsburg, I'm very proud of you as well. Very unfair, but I had to put that in. So, let me get a final question. I haven't heard. Um, I think have you not asked a question already, madame? Okay, please go ahead. >> Um, someone good afternoon, Minister Parks, it's good to see you. We're together APBC. My name is Juliet Miabo. um from Wona >> um women economic assembly and also from Ted Kosa representing township and rural entrepreneurs. Um I'm posing this question to Minister Parks but it was sparked by the comment from our gentleman in the middle about African consciousness. >> Yes. >> Um and the principal zig was was focusing on South Africa surviving in the apartate period. Currently we are faced with serious economic apartate. Um I'm not going to say more but I I agree and support what the lady is saying um to say what about South Africa. So the question is uh Mr. PS how can we prioritize South African trade and I'm being specific also being conscious that we are within SADC because South Africa has challenges that they have not dealt with that came from the apatara into now. So how are we going to be able to even attempt to have an African consciousness when we have not established or even gained any opportunities as South Africans who've survived apart hate and who are trying to survive what we are faced with currently and we are in agreement and we will support vision 2050 but as South Africa how are we going to be able to do that if our trade and businesses are not supported. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I I want to apologize in advance Lisa. I can see there are lots of hands and the time just does not permit. So please uh forgive me for not coming to every single hand that is up. I'm going to come back to the panel to give you an opportunity to respond uh to the questions. Uh before we we wrap, let me maybe start off with the issue that I think is the most that was landed most emotively and invite Dr. Nadi to take a stab at it. But Dr. Gon you're more than welcome and minister you can you can also speak about that and that was the question of balancing the narrative and not only the narrative balancing the action uh how what is your response to that how do we make sure that we are speaking uh truth to the the challenge as well as the opportunity over to you Dr. So I agree that we have to as I said deal with the difficult questions and criminality, illegal uh migration uh those kinds of things are difficult challenges that we have to face. They are realities in our society. Criminality is something that you will find across the region across all countries. We uh find it manifesting itself in particular ways in South Africa. So whether it's the illegal drug uh you know syndicates or it is uh human trafficking or whatever the case may be those all have to be dealt with through legal processes. >> Sure. The balance to that is we do not then um start to target uh our brothers and sisters from other African countries because we are trying to tackle criminality and assume that uh everyone is guilty of crime. So there's got to be a balance and you cannot then um remove the human rights and dignity of our fellow uh Africans by putting them all in the same sort of pool and saying okay all uh non sort of South Africans are bad or you know whatever the case may be you have to have a balance and understand that you treat criminals as criminals regardless of what their nationality is you treat um you know human beings as human beings and you make sure that they receive the dignity that they are entitled to. So I think it is a difficult balancing act but our government has in the last several months put resources in place to make sure that those difficult questions for example the question of uh you know border management is dealt with. So the balance has to be achieved but never uh suspend Ubuntu >> and never suspend uh Ubuntu. Thank you for that response. And so what I'm hearing you say is that uh we cannot treat anyone as one homogeneous group. Criminals should be treated like criminals irrespective of national nationality. Dr. Ghana, let me bring you in. I'd like you to do two things. I'd like your voice on this question as well. Uh but I'd also I'm taking a little bit from the question from the madame from Wikona because you you raised the the the the the prospect of an African consciousness and essentially her question was but we still have a backlog of our own issues uh as South Africans. What is your response to that? So how do you first deal with this first question and then I'd love to hear your point on how do we invite South Africans into an African consciousness irrespective of the fact that there are still probably a backlog of issues that are still being engaged with your your views please >> look firstly the question is a legitimate one because the the statistics were released this week on unemployment 33% unemployment in South Africa if we look at youth unemployment that's probably 60% youth and unemployment. These are official statistics from statistics South Africa. So there are two truths that we need to think about. The first truth is that uh South Africans generally have legitimate grieviances about employment, about crime, about service delivery. Uh now those are legitimate concerns and they're entitled to have those legit legitimate concerns. As a South African I have some of those legitimate concerns. Also there's a second truth that the state has a responsibility uh to enforce the laws and only the state not the citizens. This is not the role of the citizens. This is the role of the state. we can't expect now or uh have the citizens go out and start to play the role of the state in terms of dealing with immigrants and dealing with everybody else. So, so this is the the first issue that we need to deal with. Uh the state will dispense with its responsibility. The mayor is sitting. Yeah. He has metro police. He has I watched him on TV going around trying to do that. So, we need to support them to make sure that that happens. But the mayor must also make sure that in his capacity as the representative of government that they are delivering services water services etc etc etc so let's put that aside come to minister parktower what is our trade balance with the rest of Africa currently what 18 billion >> is the trade surplus with the rest of Africa now if we look at that trade surplus many for for the uh lady who raised the question for yourself because we must contextualize this. We are not living just in an island here in South Africa trading amongst ourselves. We have our mining companies. We have our cell phone companies. We have Shopright. All of these companies that are trading in the rest of Africa and bringing that money back into South Africa that goes into our fiscus into our revenue tax revenue. It's funding the roads that we are building in KZN. It's coming from the tax. So even those who are in the rest of Africa, they funding our roads here. So let's put that in a broader context. Now if we put that in a broader context and now we got this Malanga Commission that is sitting, it's showing that South Africans are involved in crime at the highest level. Now those are not foreigners we are seeing on TV that are that are keeping children in their houses and and tra what trafficking children that are involved in drugs. Those people on our television screens those are South Africans. What are we doing about those South Africans? That does not mean that undocumented foreigners or even documented foreigners are not involved in crime and other things in of course they are. But let's not put the blame on one group of people. Sure. Let's put this in context and let's understand that we are part of the rest of the continent. That's why when I say an African consciousness, believe me, I've been around long enough. So as the minister, we're not going to exist as a country without 60 million people, even with all of our resources, even if we decide to trade ourselves. But as a region with 400 million people and by the time vision 2050 comes into being we are 700 million people in the saddic region. That is a market that's when Microsoft that's when Google that's when India China will look at us when we are 700 million people with all our resources. So the quicker we contextualize our challenges and don't become hostile there there are three things that need to happen. So for effective governance you need government. Irregular immigration the answer to that is effective governance nothing else. Hostility against foreigners the answer to that is responsible leadership. >> Sure >> responsible leadership and the answer to both of that is regional integration if we're dealing with the deep problems. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much minister. Um I I'd like to bring you to the the the two questions from the students uh that were very much aligned to um the the the economic part of the conversation. You had Anel um you know talking about what if we just uh in uh in what if we just traded uh increasingly or bought from each other as a region? Uh and I'm raising that question first because we have been reminded by Dr. Scound that there's there's a 60 million uh market versus a 400 million market. Uh how do we help Anelle you know navigate that question to say how do we increase the trade uh uh balance uh within the region uh by trading with each other. your thoughts uh to him on that and then Amaningi uh who raised the question she says I hear us talking about the minerals I hear us talk saying that here's the opportunity where we are already outperforming but if you peel a layer back in the industry you might find that they're already monopolies and you might find there already big uh players that have monopolized those minerals how do we speak how do we speak about putting the economic power in the hands of ordinary people when there are few players who are already dominating the space. So those two questions for you. >> Well firstly let me say that we we have made progress. >> Yeah. >> I think the fact that we have agreed on the continent on the Africa continental free trade area is a huge step in moving us in that direction. The fact that we have created a single market. Yeah. The fact that we've agreed on rules of origin where products that are produced in South Africa would be recognized in the DRC, products that are manufactured in Egypt would be recognized in Nigeria is reflective of a re of a realization by our leaders that says we need to integrate and we need to create the rules that enables that integration. Then we've now been working actively uh in agreeing on the protocols that enable the implementation of the Africa continental free trade area. So now that we have this in place, we have to back it with the appropriate investments because you've created the policy instruments that enable you to move forward. You now have to match that with the appropriate investments that ensure that the ambition is achieved because the rules are now set for abil for the ability to trade. It is now about ensuring that you finance it, you build the infrastructure, you ensure that your ports are ready, that your ability to have crossber trade happens easily and those sort of things are resolved and and we don't spend enough time and I'm doing this somewhat deliberate. We don't spend enough time talking about the things that we've already achieved. >> Sure. >> Talking about the fact that when we're talking about increased trade on the African continent, it is because the policies are now in place that enables that. >> Now, we also need to invest. So the minerals are not necessarily monopolized. In fact, Africa is underexplored. So the level of exploration of our minerals, our ability to have dark determined that we have these minerals here, this can be mined. I mean in South Africa which is one of the most explored areas, we're still at 30%. We still have 70% of our minerals that have not been explored. And the same applies to many other countries where the opportunity to gain a license, the opportunity to participate is there because we have the opportunity now to explore. Which brings me back to the point about well uh there's the South African problem of people who are historically disadvantaged who have not had the opportunity to prosper. That's the discussion that is fairly topical in the country in relation to black economic empowerment >> and what we need to do to to advance black economic empowerment. The first is we need to build capability. So when we're talking about the country's broad-based black economic empowerment policies, we say we allocate points to companies and government departments that are measured entities on the basis of the number of black people they take to school. >> Sure. >> So skills is an important part of what we measure. I always say to people, you can get a bary from Anglo-American. We measure it as a skills charter point in the broad-based black economic empowerment program when you've received your CL your bary from a different institution. So building skills is important because then it enables people to have the capability to participate in the economy. The second is about ensuring that we consolidate on enterprise and supply development. We've just uh and in fact we anticipate to launch this next month. Now we've been working for the past two years on what we call the transformation fund. >> Yeah. >> It is an aggregation of enterprise and supply [clears throat] sorry supplier development resources with the ambition that we should raise a 100 billion rand that would be invested in black enterprise over a three-ear period. Now that is about ensure ensuring that people have access to funding but not just access to funding because it's also a supplier development program access to market for those products that people are able to produce. So we we built an ecosystem that enables that. We've just asented to the Africa Export Import Bank. We've agreed on a 12 billion US package of investments that come into the country. 2 billion is going towards insurance and reinsurance and underwriting through the export credit insurance corporation in our department. Uh 8 billion is going towards general investment in export and import. But we've deliberately said $3 billion must go to black enterprise. And I was saying at the BBC event, >> it doesn't mean you don't have to participate in the other nine what? >> Yeah. >> 10 billion. It doesn't mean you don't have to participate in another 10 billion. You can participate but a dedicated resource has gone towards black enterprise to enable import and export because in reality unless you are able to liberate black people from economic bondage the problems of this country will not be resolved. And as I conclude >> sure >> it is reflective of what happens when we're talking about migration. Our our reality is that it is usually the poor that fight the poor. It is usually the poor that alienate the poor because our and it doesn't mean we don't have to deal with criminality. We have to deal with criminality. And I always say if you are undocumented, we can't even police you. You can't police an undocumented person. So it is important for every person that comes into the country to be documented to be here legally and it and we shouldn't be apologetic about the fact that we say like every other country if you come here you have to be documented coming legally because the only way we can police you the only way we can control issues even managing disease because disease is spread between countries if we don't know the source and the origin we can't manage it in as much as you can get disease from South Africa and export it out of the country. If we don't know you, we can't say when there's an outbreak of lesteriosis in South Africa and you you export the disease to another country, we don't know where you where you are, where you coming from. It shouldn't happen. So the state must be decisive in dealing with these issues. But that doesn't mean that we should not address the most important issue which is that what is most critical not just to South Africans but to all of us in Saddak is to build prosperity for our people because when people are prosperous they are less likely to be worried about their neighbor because migration is a very emotive issue. [applause] Migration is an extremely emotive issue. You know, let's talk about the reality in our own country. Are the people in KZ 10 that say no, we don't want somebody to get a tender in this department in this province that comes from the Eastern Cape. >> These things happen. >> These things happen because migration is a it's primarily because people are contesting for resources. So until we build prosperity for all our people, we will not be able to address these challenges. And that's why this conversation is important. That's why the efforts that we're undertaking are important so that we're able to build prosperity for all. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Minister. So we're out of time. Uh I'm going to release you. As I release you, I'm going to ask for one final thing. Um, I like to put my panelists on the spot just before they leave and I'd like to invite you to think of a billboard. Minister, we've done this a lot of times. So, you've become really good at it. So, I'm going to let you go last. Like you to think of a billboard and this billboard captures for you what you're taking from this conversation. Uh, more practically, I've got colleagues in the media who are waiting for the headline for the 7 p.m. news and what they're going to put on the newspapers tomorrow. So this billboard is really going to help them. Now minister, you know that this is not a ministerial uh keynote. It's a billboard. Uh it's not a conflict prevention uh piece or of analysis, Dr. Gaon. And it's not a political science paper. Uh Dr. Nadvi, it is a billboard. So I'm going to help you though. I'm going to help you because I'm going to give you the beginning of the billboard and you just complete the sentence. So Dr. Dr. Nadri uh what typically happens ladies and gentlemen at this point is that the most confident person looks me dead in the eye and right now it's Dr. Nadi so she's very confident and the one who's most fearful is looking away it's too late to look away now Dr. Gon so Dr. Nadi I'm going to give you the honors of starting us off and the billboard starts with the journey to 2050 and you complete the sentence and it's the same for all three of you and yes you can start writing Dr. Gondon uh as you come up with those creative juices. Dr. Nadby, the journey to 2050 >> is Africa united. Ladies and gentlemen, I think that is a big round of applause. [applause] The journey to 2050 is Africa united. Dr. Gaon, the journey to 2050 >> starts with youth employment. >> Starts with youth employment. [cheering] [applause] Now, now the challenge of going last is that yours has got to be the best, right? So, Minister, the pressure is on. Um, the journey to 2050. >> That's too much pressure, but it's in our hands. >> Is in our hands. Let's give Minister a big round of applause. Uh, thank you very much. Um, ladies and gentlemen, won't you please give my panelists a big round of applause as they take our seats? Thank you so much. >> [applause] >> Thank you. >> Hand back to Minister Chabeni at this moment. Thank you, Minister. Thank you. I know for my colleagues, the ministers of foreign affairs, we are under time pressure, but we're going to get ourselves out of here soon so that we can go and finalize our mandate as mandated. At this moment, I'd like to invite the person who's going to give us a vote of thanks who is the executive mayor of municipality and the executive mayor is councelor Sir Gaba. It is very fitting that he gives the the vote of thanks because he is leading a municipality who has recorded the lowest unemployment rate amongst the metropolitan municipalities in South Africa. [applause and cheering] [clears throat] uh program director. I'm going to be short. Uh thank you very much. Um I wish to acknowledge um protocol that has been uh declared and really thank you uh for this opportunity. I wish to say that uh uh it is my distinct privilege and honor to deliver the vote of thanks on this historic occasion. First and foremost, I wish to extend our profound gratitude to his excellency president Maposa for delivering a staring and visionary keynote address. His words have reinvigorated our collective commitment to translate the aspirations of SAD vision 2050 into tangible actions sorry into tangible actions that will uplift the lives of our people. We are equally grateful to the executive secretary of SAT, his excellency Elas Mosi for his insightful remarks and to our distinguished panelist Minister Pak Stu, Dr. Vasu, Governor and Dr. uh Navdi Nav Nadvi for their rich contributions. The high level dialogue expertly moderated by Miss Noipo Shabala has provided us with practical ways towards industrialization, regional integration and inclusive development. I extend our sincere appreciation to the University of Kazun Natal leadership and its vice chancellor for hosting us and to the Wazulu Natal provincial government led by the premier for their unwavering support. To the program director Minister Shaveeni, we thank her we thank her for for steering this pro proceedings with distinction. to all delegates, academics, students and members of civil society who participated so actively in the interactive discussion. Your engagement has in fact enriched this deliberation. The question and insight raised today underscore the vitality of public ownership in this regional project. As the mayor of the city, I reaffirm our commitment to being a gateway for regional trade, investment and dialogue. Our port of Deben and King Shaga International Airport stand ready to facilitate the economic transformation in Sikk. The Deben ported by the well-developed road network boast worldclass facilities capable of meeting the needs of our respective communities. It is therefore not simply a South African asset. It is an African asset. In closing, let us carry this spirit of solidarity, equality, and shared prosperity beyond these walls. Let our collective resolve translate into concrete investments, inclusive growth, and sustainable peace across our 16 SAT member states. May the outcome of the fourth sixth summit of SAT heads of state and government continue to inspire us to build the Africa we want, the Africa we want to live in. Thank you very much. [applause] >> Thank you. No goi. As we move forward to a shared prosperity, I'll request us to rise for the singing of the national anthems starting with the anthem of the AU followed by that of SAD and that of South Africa. And I'll make the announcements when when we are done singing the national anthem. And those are important announcements. So let's not walk out after the singing of national anthems there. Let's wait for the announcements. Let us [singing and music] all unite and cate together the [singing] victories [music] for our liber. Let us dedicate [singing] ourselves to rise together [music] to defend [singing] our liberty and unity. Oh sons [singing] and daughters of Africa, flesh of the sun [singing] and flesh of the [music] sky. Let us [singing] make Africa the tree of life. Sonic, [singing] sonic, of [singing] a better [music] future and hope [singing] for original and universal integration toward the people's unity and [singing] harmony of humanity of our ancestors. Let us [singing] praise the realization of our [singing] solidarity. Sonic, [singing] sonic, sonic, sonic. [singing] [music] >> [singing] >> Afric [singing] [singing] Fore! Foreign! Foreign! [music] [singing] [music] >> [singing] [music] [singing] [singing] >> South Africa. South Afric [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] United [singing] we shall stand. Let us lead [singing] for free in South Africa. [singing] [applause] >> Thank you. I'll request the ministers of for of foreign affairs and the delegations to leave for the ICC so that we can start uh commence with our next session at 1500 hours for lunchon. Lunchon will be served in the marquee across the the venue here at the university. Asant Moto Bria Ziniri me. Thank you. [music] [music] Good one. Yeah, my guitar is not [music] [music] [music] in Africa. [music] Africa [music] is I came [music] afra. From [music] [music] the peaks of Kilimanjaro where the skies kiss the sun to the banks of [music] the Nile where our journeys began. Across the grains of violence, [singing] while the wild herds roam free throughout Mama Africa, we [music] all share a dream. >> [singing] >> Africa. [music] Africa. Africa. >> [music] >> Africa [music] Africa [music] Africa [singing] on.