Southern African Development Community (SADC) Chairperson President Cyril Ramaphosa says the success of the 46th summit will be measured by the impact it has on the lives of the people in the region’s 16 member states.

He was speaking at the end of the regional bloc’s Heads of State and Government meeting in Durban on Monday night.

Among others, the gathering signed three legal instruments and committed the region to industrialisation and the beneficiation of its mineral resources.

Ramaphosa says his chairmanship will be about the full implementation of the resolutions taken.

He says, “Our citizens will ultimately judge us not by the number of resolutions we adopt, but by the difference those resolutions make in their daily lives. The challenge before us is therefore implementation. We must now accelerate implementation.”

Ramaphosa adds, “We must measure our progress not only in meetings held and agreements signed, but in kilometres of railway rehabilitated, megawatts of electricity generated and transmitted, border-crossing times reduced, factories established, intra-regional trade expanded and jobs created. That must be the defining character of the next phase of SADC’s development.”

–SABC–